High-sensitivity, high-speed, broadband mid-infrared photodetector enabled by a van der Waals heterostructure with a vertical transport channel
Jianfeng Wu, Jialin Zhang, Ruiqi Jiang, Hao Wu, Shouheng Chen, Xinlei Zhang, Wenhui Wang, Yuanfang Yu, Qiang Fu, Rui Lin, Yueying Cui, Tao Zhou, Zhenliang Hu, Dongyang Wan, Xiaolong Chen, Weida Hu, Hongwei Liu, Junpeng Lü, Zhenhua Ni
Abstract
The realization of room-temperature-operated, high-performance, miniaturized, low-power-consumption and Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible mid-infrared photodetectors is highly desirable for next-generation optoelectronic applications, but has thus far remained an outstanding challenge using conventional materials. Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures provide an alternative path toward this goal, yet despite continued efforts, their performance has not matched that of low-temperature HgCdTe photodetectors. Here, we push the detectivity and response speed of a 2D heterostructure-based mid-infrared photodetector to be comparable to, and even superior to, commercial cooled HgCdTe photodetectors by utilizing a vertical transport channel (graphene/black phosphorus/molybdenum disulfide/graphene). The minimized carrier transit path of tens of nanometers facilitates efficient and fast carrier transport, leading to significantly improved performance, with a mid-infrared detectivity reaching 2.38 × 1011 cmHz1/2W−1 (approaching the theoretical limit), a fast response time of 10.4 ns at 1550 nm, and an ultrabroadband detection range spanning from the ultraviolet to mid-infrared wavelengths. Our study provides design guidelines for next-generation high-performance room-temperature-operated mid-infrared photodetectors. Here, the authors report the realization of room-temperature broadband mid-infrared detectors based on a van der Waals heterostructure with a vertical transport channel, exhibiting specific detectivity and response times comparable or superior to those of commercial cooled HgCdTe photodetectors.