文章基本信息

标题：Switched photocurrent direction in Au/TiO2 bilayer thin films
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作者：Hongjun Chen ; Gang Liu ; Lianzhou Wang 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2015
卷号：5
期号：1
DOI：10.1038/srep10852
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Switched photocurrent direction in photoelectrodes is a very interesting phenomenon and has demonstrated their potentials in important applications including photodiodes, phototransistors, light-driven sensors and biosensors. However, the design and mechanism understanding of such photoelectrodes remain challenging to date. Here we report a new phenomenon of sequence-driven the photocurrent direction on a simple bilayer structure of 5 nm thick Au and 10 nm TiO₂ under visible-light irradiation. It is found that when Au layer are deposited as the outer layer on TiO₂ coated fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate (designated as FTO/TiO₂/Au), anodic photocurrent is obtained due to the band bending formed at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Interestingly, simply swapping the deposition sequence of Au and TiO₂ leads to cathodic photocurrent on FTO/Au/TiO₂ electrode. Characterization and calculations on the photoelectrode reveals that the photogenerated electrons can be easily trapped in the energy well formed between the band bending and the Schottky contact, which allows electronic tunnelling through the 1.6 nm thick space charge layer, resulting in a unique anodic to cathodic photocurrent conversion. The understanding of this new phenomenon can be important for designing new generation optoelectronic converting devices in a low-cost and facile manner.