The effect of annealing temperature on the electrical and optical properties of nanostructured ZNO for UV sensing applications

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a promising candidate for UV sensing applications because of its direct bandgap energy of 3.37 eV and very sensitive to UV light. In this work, we present the effect of annealing temperature on the electrical and optical properties of nanostructured ZnO for UV sensing applications. The SEM results indicate that the surface morphologies of nanostructured ZnO varies with annealing temperatures. The electrical and optical properties are strongly correlated to the shape and size of the nanostructured ZnO. Nanostructured ZnO has fast UV photoresponse with cut-off wavelength ~400 nm. Annealing at 500degC has resulted highest UV absorption and photocurrent response compare to other annealing temperatures. This indicates that annealing temperature has strong effect to the electrical and optical properties of nanostructured ZnO.