Silica nanocone array as a template for fabricating a plasmon induced hot electron photodetector

Plasmon induced hot electrons have attracted a great deal of interest as a novel route for photodetection and light-energy harvesting. Herein, we report a hot electron photodetector in which a large array of nanocones deposited sequentially with aluminum, titanium dioxide, and gold films can be integrated functionally with nanophotonics and microelectronics. The device exhibits a strong photoelectric response at around 620 nm with a responsivity of 180 μA/W under short-circuit conditions with a significant increase under 1 V reverse bias to 360 μA/W. The increase in responsivity and a red shift in the peak value with increasing bias voltage indicate that the bias causes an increase in the hot electron tunneling effect. Our approach will be advantageous for the implementation of the proposed architecture on a vast variety of integrated optoelectronic devices.