A transparent, self-powered photodetector based on p-CuI/n-TiO2 heterojunction film with high on-off ratio.

Ultraviolet(UV) photodetectors(PDs) can monitor UV radiation, enabling it to be effective for many applications, such as communication, imaging and sensing. The rapid progress on portable and wearable optoelectronic devices places a great demand on self-powered PDs. However, high-performance self-powered PDs are still limited. Herein we display a transparent (a 74% average transparency) and self-powered PD based on a p-CuI/n-TiO2 heterojunction, which exhibits a high on-off ratio (~104 at 310 nm) and a fast response speed (rise time/decay time = 0.11 ms/0.72 ms) without bias. Moreover, the device shows an excellent UV-selective sensitivity as a solar-blind UV PD with a high UV/visible rejection ratio (R300 nm/R400 nm = 5.3×102), which can be ascribed to the wide bandgaps of CuI and TiO2. This work provides a feasible route for the construction of transparent, self-powered PDs based on p-n heterojunctions.