Near-Infrared Photoresponsivity of ZnON Thin-Film Transistor with Energy Band-Tunable Semiconductor.

Amorphous oxide semiconductors have attracted attention in electronic device applications because of their high electrical uniformity over large areas, high mobility, and low-temperature process. However, photonic applications of oxide semiconductors are highly limited because of their larger band gap (over 3.0 eV). Here, we propose low band gap zinc oxynitride semiconductors not only because of their high electrical performance but also their high photoresponsivity in the vis-NIR regions. The optical band gap of zinc oxynitride films, which is in the range of 0.95-1.24 eV, could be controlled easily by changing oxygen and nitrogen ratios during reactive sputtering. Band gap tuned zinc oxynitride-based phototransistors showed significantly different photoresponse following both threshold voltage and drain current changes due to variation in nitrogen-related defect sites.