Dispersed Ag nanoparticles on TiO2 nanowire clusters for photodetection

The glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique has been employed to synthesize TiO
₂
nanowire clusters (NWCs) covered with Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on Si (n-type) substrates. The Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) characterization has shown Ag NPs distribution on the TiO
₂
NWCs surface. The photoluminescence emission intensity from the TiO
₂
NWCs/Ag NPs sample reduced due to the formation of Ag-O complex on the TiO
₂
surface. The Current (I) - voltage (V) characteristics have been measured for TiO
₂
NWCs/Ag NPs structure under white light and dark conditions. The ideality factor ~ 16.1 for TiO
₂
NWCs/Ag NPs and ~ 7.04 for TiO
₂
NWCs based detectors have been calculated. The switching on/off time response shows rise time (Tr) of 23.60 sec and decay time (Tf) of 23.11 sec for TiO
₂
NWCs/Ag NPs detector.