A high-performance broadband photodetector with p-SnS/n-ZnS heterojunction nanowires as active layer and novel nanoparticle-anchored silver nanowires as efficient plasmonic electrodes

In this paper, we design and demonstrate a high-performance broadband photodetector (PD) with p-SnS/n-ZnS heterojunction nanowires as active material and novel nanoparticle-anchored silver nanowires (NP-anchored Ag NWs) as efficient plasmonic electrodes. The crystal structure, epitaxy process, surface composition, and intrinsic defect state of the as-synthesized p-SnS/n-ZnS heterojunction nanowires are investigated. The finite-difference time-domain simulation verifies a giant near-field intensity enhancement (~ 1000 times) at the Ag NP–NW junction. Notably, the fabricated NP-anchored Ag NWs PD exhibits excellent photoresponse (responsivity = 80 A/W, detectivity = 7.9 × 1011 Jones, and EQE = 2.7 × 104% @365 nm, 5 V bias) and fast response speed (tr = 0.04 s and td = 0.07 s), outperforming most recently reported ZnS heterojunction-based PDs. The strategy presented in this work may be instructive to design high-performance optoelectronic devices for making better use of plasmons.