High performance graphene/semiconductor van der Waals heterostructure optoelectronic devices

As a typical two-dimensional (2D) atomic thin material, the massless Dirac Fermions in graphene promise many unique physical properties, such as high carrier mobility and high light transmission. However, after a decade of research and a huge number of papers focusing on graphene, high performance graphene based optoelectronic devices is still lacked, which should be achieved for realizing competitive industrial graphene product. In this review, we point out high performance optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, photodetector and light emitting diodes can be demonstrated by properly marrying graphene with semiconductor. The fundamental physics of graphene/semiconductor heterostructure as well as its optoelectronic properties are comprehensively addressed. We suggest six strategies of improving the performance of graphene/semiconductor based optoelectronic devices. The outstanding light harvesting enhancement characteristic of surface plasmon is detailed represented to highlight its importance and potential. Especially, we indicate that graphene/semiconductor heterostructure solar cell can reach a power conversion efficiency of 30%.