Probing the Efficacy of Large-Scale Nonporous IGZO for Visible-to-NIR Detection Capability: An Approach toward High-Performance Image Sensor Circuitry

The technological ability to detect a wide spectrum range of illuminated visible-to-NIR is substantially improved for an amorphous metal oxide semiconductor, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), without employing an additional photoabsorber. The fundamentally tuned morphology via structural engineering results in the creation of nanopores throughout the entire thickness of ∼30 nm. See-through nanopores have edge functionalization with vacancies, which leads to a large density of substates near the conduction band minima and valence band maxima. The presence of nanoring edges with a high concentration of vacancies is investigated using chemical composition analysis. The process of creating a nonporous morphology is sophisticated and is demonstrated using a wafer-scale phototransistor array. The performance of the phototransistors is assessed in terms of photosensitivity (S) and photoresponsivity (R); both are of high magnitudes (S = 8.6 × 10⁴at λ_ex= 638 nm and P_inc= 512 mW cm^2-R = 120 A W^1-at P_inc= 2 mW cm^2-for the same λ_ex). Additionally, the 7 × 5 array of 35 phototransistors is effective in sensing and reproducing the input image by responding to selectively illuminated pixels.