Ultraviolet Photoresponse Properties of Zinc Oxide Nanorods on Heavily Boron-Doped Diamond Heterostructure

Heterostructures consisting of ZnO and diamond appear to have an elusive nature. A rectifying behaviour was previously observed only for heterojunctions with very lightly doped p-type diamond using residual boron gas during the chemical vapour deposition process or type IIb diamond. Other studies, however, claimed to obtain a rectifying behaviour for heterojunctions with p-type diamond with higher carrier densities between 1018 1019 cm-3. In this work we investigate the behaviour of n-type ZnO on heavily boron-doped p-type diamond. This heterostructure that is sensitive to UV light has been fabricated using ZnO nanorods grown on heavily boron-doped chemical vapour deposition diamond substrates. The I - V measurements show a rectifying characteristic. The threshold voltages under dark and UV conditions are 3.66 and 2.52 V, respectively. The UV illumination also results in an increased current flow. The electrical behaviour due to the UV illumination will be discussed.