Development of a broadband photodetector utilizing ZnO nanorods with grating structure fabricated via nanoimprint lithography

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has emerged as a powerful technique for integrating nanostructures into semiconductor devices, particularly optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, and photodetectors (PDs). This study presents the successful fabrication of nano-patterned ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs) using NIL, resulting in a grating structure with a linewidth of approximately 600 nm and a periodicity of around 1080 nm. Morphological characterizations, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and laser confocal microscopy, reveal well-defined grating structures with ZnO NRs deposited on the substrate. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) further confirm the crystallinity of ZnO NRs, both with and without NIL treatment. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) shows that the NIL-patterned samples with ZnO NRs exhibit fewer defects, attributed to the O₂ plasma treatment during the NIL process. The NIL-defined grating structure of ZnO NRs is then employed in the fabrication of photodetectors, which demonstrate higher sensitivity than the pure ZnO-NRs-based PDs, presumably due to the reduce defects. Moreover, the NIL-defined PDs exhibit broadband photoresponses across the UV and visible light spectrum. This work introduces a novel device design for photodetectors and highlights the potential of NIL in creating broadband ZnO-based PDs, promising applications in future optoelectronics.