Pristine and neodymium-doped (3, 6, and 9 wt.%) ZnO nanostructured thin films were deposited on glass substrates using the chemical bath technique. The changes in structural, topographical, photoluminescence, and UV detection properties have been studied. XRD studies confirmed the ZnO phase with a hexagonal structure with a strong prevalence of (002) peak. Nd-doping reduces the bandgap value of the grown material from 3.33 to 3.18 eV. The photoluminescence studies of grown nanowires exhibited the presence of luminescence centers at 387, 412, 438, 452, 477, and 525 nm, respectively. The photocurrent value is increased from 5.37 × 10− 7 to 3.77 × 10− 6 A on increasing the Nd doping content from 0 to 6%. The Responsivity, External quantum efficiency, and Detectivity of pristine and doped samples were also studied. We found that the 6% Nd-doped sample shows improved values of optoelectronic parameters which indicate that it is a potential candidate for photodetector applications.