ZnO nanowires based flexible UV photodetectors for wearable dosimetry

This paper presents flexible ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) for wearable dosimetry. High-crystal quality ZnO NWs are synthesized by chemical vapour transport on sapphire substrates, and thereafter, they were transferred to flexible substrate and aligned using dielectrophoresis (DEP). The control over DEP parameters permits creating large-area arrays of PDs. The PDs show photocurrent to dark current ratios above 103%, fast response times (<;1 s), high sensitivity to different UV light intensities, and good stability under several UV/dark irradiation cycles. In addition, resulting PDs present an excellent robustness and feasibility under extreme bending conditions, making these devices suitable for wearable dosimetry.