Facile preparation and optoelectronic properties of CuO nanowires for violet light sensing

Abstract CuO nanowires (NWs) were prepared on Cu foil substrates via a simple thermal oxidation, which exhibited good crystal and optical properties. By means of a conventional furnace at 500 °C for 3 h, the CuO NWs were grown vertically with high aspect ratio with the lengths/widths of ~5–15 μm/~20–70 nm. To investigate photoresponse characteristics, the multiple CuO NWs were deposited between metal electrodes using the CuO NWs dispersed in 1-butanol solution. Under the violet light multiple switching, the fabricated sample showed a good photocurrent switching behavior with a short reset time.