Light-Induced Electric Field Enhanced Self-Powered Photodetector Based on Van der Waals Heterojunctions

Self-powered photodetectors have attracted widespread attention due to their low power consumption which can be driven by the built-in electric field instead of external power, but it is very difficult to achieve high responsivity and fast response speed concurrently. Here, a self-powered photodetector with light-induced electric field enhancement based on a 2D InSe/WSe2/SnS2 van der Waals heterojunction is designed. The light-induced electric field derived from the photo-generated electrons of SnS2 accumulated at the SnS2/WSe2 interface produces an additional negative gate voltage applied to the WSe2 layer, which enhances the built-in electric field in the InSe/WSe2/SnS2 heterojunction. Accordingly, the photocurrent and photoresponse speed of the heterostructure device are largely improved. The self-powered photodetector based on the InSe/WSe2/SnS2 heterostructure exhibits a high responsivity of 550 mA W-1, which is a 50 times increase compared to the InSe/WSe2 photodetector, and the response speed (110/120 mu s) is one order of magnitude faster than that of the InSe/WSe2 photodetector. The high responsivity and fast speed are caused by the stronger built-in electric field modulated by a light-induced electric field, which can separate carriers effectively and reduce drift times. This device architecture can provide a new avenue to fabricate high-responsivity, fast self-power photodetectors by utilizing the van der Waals heterojunction.

Automated summary

A self-powered photodetector with light-induced electric field enhancement based on a 2D InSe/WSe2/SnS2 van der Waals heterojunction is designed, which achieves high responsivity and fast response speed by utilizing the light-induced electric field.