Ultraviolet photodetector based on sol–gel synthesized MgZnO nanoparticle with photoconductive gain

•Ultraviolet photodetectors based on sol–gel synthesized Mg0.18Zn0.82O nanoparticles have been constructed.•Sol–gel synthesized MgZnO nanoparticle is suitable to act as the active layer of UV photodetector.•The EQE of the photodetector is larger than unity, indicating photoconductive gain exists within the device.

Ultraviolet photodetectors based on sol–gel synthesized Mg0.18Zn0.82O nanoparticles have been constructed. The device exhibits a maximum responsivity of 0.27 A/W at 13 V bias, and the UV/visible reject ratio up to 2 orders of magnitude. The peak response of the photodetector centers at 322 nm and cutoff wavelength is 363 nm. The above characteristics of device illustrate that sol–gel synthesized MgZnO nanoparticle is suitable to act as the active layer of UV photodetector. The EQE of the photodetector is larger than unity, indicating photoconductive gain exists within the device.