Simulation studies of p-doped ZnO MSM Photodetector with Plasmonic Enhancement

This paper presents the simulation studies of Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) Photodetector (PD) with and without plasmonic enhancement. The simulations were carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The semiconductor layer was p-type ZnO with a doping concentration of 10¹⁶/cm³. The plasmonic layer was of Au nanoparticles. The PD was irradiated with 10W UV radiation of wavelength 280nm. The output currents of MSM PD with and without plasmonic layer were found to be ∼0.9×10^-7 A and ∼0.8×10^-8 A respectively. It was observed that there is an appreciable increase (factor of 10) in photo current in devices with a plasmonic layer. The effect of change in the size of Au nano particles on output photocurrent was also studied. (paper)