Sustainable light energy from ambient environment has attracted particular attention to meet the ever-growing need of small-scale electronics. The modulation of intercorrelated thermal and electronic transport is one of the crucial aspects for reliable photothermoelectric electronics. Herein, a defect-promoted photothermoelectric effect is demonstrated in densely aligned ZnO nanorod array with rich lattice defects. The defect-rich ZnO device delivers high electrical conductivity and large Seebeck coefficient to enable significant improvement of photothermoelectric energy conversion and self-powered photodetection. The position sensitivity reaches approximately 0.19 mV mm⁻¹, and the temperature gradient induced electric field makes up for the suppression in the photothermoelectric process. The synergism between intrinsic defects and extra temperature field plays an important role in promoting the photothermoelectric properties of dense ZnO nanorod array. This study is interesting for interpreting the thermo-phototronic phenomena as well as demonstrating the possibility of defect engineering and phonon engineering to enable highly efficient light energy scavenging and self-powered photodetection.

来自周围环境的可持续光能引起了人们的特别关注，以满足对小型电子产品不断增长的需求。相互关联的热和电子传输的调制是可靠的光热电电子学的关键方面之一。在此，在具有丰富晶格缺陷的密集排列的 ZnO 纳米棒阵列中证明了缺陷促进的光热电效应。富含缺陷的 ZnO 器件具有高电导率和大塞贝克系数，可显着改善光热电能量转换和自供电光电检测。位置灵敏度达到约 0.19 mV mm ^-1，而温度梯度感应电场弥补了光热电过程中的抑制作用。本征缺陷和额外温度场之间的协同作用对促进致密ZnO纳米棒阵列的光热电性能具有重要作用。这项研究对于解释热光电子现象以及证明缺陷工程和声子工程实现高效光能清除和自供电光电检测的可能性很有趣。