Performance improvement of ZnO nanowire based surface acoustic wave ultraviolet detector via poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) surface coating

• PEDOT surface coating is used to improve the recovery speed of ZnO nanowire based SAW UV detector.
• The detailed physical mechanisms and processes of the improvement of the recovery speed are analyzed theoretically.
• The fundamental method to improve the performance of the ZnO nanowire based SAW UV detector is illustrated.

ZnO nanowire based surface acoustic wave ultraviolet (UV) detector is highly desirable for UV radiation detection. However, its slow recovery process due to the surface effect of ZnO nanowires has become a crucial issue. In this paper, a simple method of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) surface coating by the chemical polymerization is proposed and experimentally proved to improve the recovery process significantly. According to the photoconductive effect and the acoustoelectric effect, the suppression of ZnO nanowires’ surface effect and the fast recombination approach of excess carriers provided by the PEDOT layer are responsible for the improvement of the recovery process.