High photodetectivity of low-voltage flexible photodetectors assembled with hybrid aligned nanowire arrays

One-dimensional (1-D) hybrid nanostructures with high opto-electronic performance, flexible features, and a rationally designed device assembly have an exponentially growing demand for their use in transparent and flexible photodetectors. To meet these requirements, a cost effective and facile processing route is mandatory for their fabrication and integration into the device assembly. Herein, we have successfully assembled photodetectors from high quality well-oriented uniaxially aligned hybrid ZnO–ZnGa2O4 nanofibers. Our prepared flexible devices demonstrate outstanding performance in terms of large responsivity (1.73 × 102 A W−1), high photodetectivity (∼1.02 × 1012 Jones), and external quantum efficiency (7.10 × 104%) along with fast rise and recovery times of less than 400 and 500 ms, respectively. In addition, the prepared photodetectors have shown outstanding flexibility and stability with more than 70% retention in photosensitivity at a very small bending radius of 2 mm. The synthesized hybrid nanofibers have also shown more than 80% transparency in the visible range (400–700 nm). The assembled hybrid photodetectors indicate that ZnO–ZnGa2O4 nanofibers are highly valuable for optoelectronic devices. It is also worth emphasizing that our assembled flexible photodetectors based on hybrid nanofibers with high surface-to-volume ratio have promising applications in soft electronics and invisible optoelectronic devices.