Ho doping-induced ferroelectric polarization enhances UV photodetector performance of YbMnO3

The ferroelectric photovoltaic (PE-PV) effect has been extensively explored and plays a crucial role in constructing self-powered photodetectors. Ferroelectric materials have been attracting great interest in self-powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors due to their polarization-induced photovoltaic effect. In this paper, the ultraviolet self-powered photodetection properties of polycrystalline rare-earth Yb 1-x Ho x MnO 3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.08, Δx = 0.02) ferroelectric materials have been investigated. The substitution of Ho atoms for Mn atoms has a great influence on the ferroelectric polarization, and Ho doping increases the photocurrent density. The photodetectors show excellent reproducibility responsivity (R) and detectivity (D*) under illumination at 365 nm. In addition, at the light density of 1 mW/cm 2 , the responsivity and detectivity of the photodetectors are as high as 0.09 W/A and 3.359 × 10 11 Jones, respectively. These outstanding photodetection performances are due to the relatively high short-circuit current density ( J sc ). High J sc implies that more photogenerated carriers can be produced under illumination, which makes the device more sensitive to optical signals. This study presents a feasible method for improving the light-detection performance of the ultraviolet self-powered detector.