A novel 1D Cd(ii) based coordination polymer (complex 1) has been synthesized involving an 8-aminoquinoline based Schiff base ligand and cyanate ion. It has been characterized by elemental analysis, different spectroscopy methods and X-ray single crystal diffraction technique. Most interestingly it exhibits unique properties like electrical conductivity and photosensitivity which shows its potential in optoelectronic device application. We prove both experimentally and theoretically that electrical conduction under irradiation of visible light increases many fold in comparison with that under dark condition. Our synthesized material based device shows some paramount behaviour under irradiance of light which is obvious in light sensing Schottky devices. The rectification ratio of our complex based device was found to be 12.44 and 27.74 under dark and photoirradiation conditions respectively. The discovery of such type of coordination polymer advances the area of optoelectronic devices.