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Rewritable nanoscale oxide photodetector

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 849–852 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nanophotonic devices are designed to generate, guide or detect light using structures with nanoscale dimensions that are closely tied to their functionality1,2,3,4. However, the integration of photonic nanostructures with electronic circuitry5 remains one of the most challenging aspects of device development. Here we report the development of rewritable nanoscale photodetectors created at the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. Nanowire junctions with characteristic dimensions of 2–3 nm are created using a reversible conductive atomic force microscope writing technique6,7. These nanoscale devices exhibit remarkably high gain for their size, in part because of the large electric fields produced in the gap region. The photoconductive response is electric field-tunable and spans the visible-to-near-infrared regime. The ability to integrate rewritable nanoscale photodetectors with nanowires and transistors in a single material platform foreshadows new families of integrated optoelectronic devices and applications.

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Figure 1: Diagram of sample and photoresponse.
Figure 2: Scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) images of various nanostructures written at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.
Figure 3: Three-terminal, nanoscale, locally gateable photodetector.
Figure 4: Gate-controlled spectral response of photodetector.
Figure 5: Spectral sensitivity and intensity dependence from visible to near-infrared wavelengths.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (W911N3-09-10258) (J.L.), the Fine Foundation (J.L.) and the National Science Foundation through grants DMR-0704022 (J.L.) and DMR-0906443 (C.-B.E).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15260, Pennsylvania, USA

    Patrick Irvin, Yanjun Ma, Daniela F. Bogorin, Cheng Cen & Jeremy Levy

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Chung Wung Bark, Chad M. Folkman & Chang-Beom Eom

Authors
  1. Patrick Irvin
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  2. Yanjun Ma
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  3. Daniela F. Bogorin
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  4. Cheng Cen
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  6. Chad M. Folkman
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  7. Chang-Beom Eom
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  8. Jeremy Levy
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Contributions

P.I. and J.L. conceived the study. C.W.B., C.M.F. and C.-B.E. supplied materials. P.I., Y.M., D.F.B. and C.C. performed c-AFM lithography. P.I. and Y.M. performed the optical experiments and analysed data. C.C. performed finite element analysis. P.I. and J.L. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Jeremy Levy.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Irvin, P., Ma, Y., Bogorin, D. et al. Rewritable nanoscale oxide photodetector. Nature Photon 4, 849–852 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.238

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