A self-powered photodetector was fabricated using vertical 1D WO3 nanowires (NWs) on a p-type silicon substrate, employing the GLAD (glancing angle deposition technique) within an DC/RF sputtering deposition chamber. The fabricated WO3 NW based p-n junction photodetector exhibits a high responsivity of 8.1 \({mAW}^{-1}\) at 400 nm illumination without any applied bias (0 V) and 21.84 \({AW}^{-1}\) with a bias of + 5 V, showcasing its potential for low-power applications. The additional figure-of merits, such as detectivity and noise equivalent power ( \(NEP)\) of the fabricated WO3-based PD were measured to be \(3.57\times{10}^{10}\) Jones and \(9.42\times{10}^{-11}W\) at 0 V under UV illumination, respectively. Moreover, a fast response of the fabricated device was obtained with a rise time of \(0.10\) s and a fall time of \(0.18\) s (when biassed at 0 V). The WO3 NWs with large surface-to-volume improves photon absorption and effectively separates photogenerated electron-hole pairs via high quality built-in electric fields at the p-n junction. This investigation uncovers a self-energized photodetector demonstrating exceptional performance metrics, indicating promising applications in the field of low-power optoelectronics for advanced nanodevices of the future.
