Au-nanoparticles-decorated Sb₂S₃ nanowire-based flexible ultraviolet/visible photodetectors

One-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures are excellent candidates for high-performance photodetectors due to their unique physical properties: large surface area and high-density surface-dangling bonds and surface states. We fabricated flexible ultraviolet/visible photodetectors with Au-nanoparticles-decorated Sb₂S₃ nanowires. As-fabricated flexible devices exhibited excellent photoresponse properties, including high responsivity (59.5 A W⁻¹) and specific detectivity (4.29 × 10¹⁰ Jones) as well as good stability and reproducibility. The greatly improved photoresponse properties of Au-nanoparticles-decorated Sb₂S₃ nanowires were caused by the formation of Schottky junctions between Au nanoparticles and Sb₂S₃ nanowires, which enhanced the spatial electron-hole separation effect. The method used here may be extended to other metal nanoparticles-decorated semiconductor nanowires, and as-fabricated flexible devices may find application in next-generation flexible optoelectronic devices.