Plasmonic-enhanced perovskite-graphene hybrid photodetectors

The surface plasmonic effect of metal nanostructures is a promising method to boost the performance of optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and photodetectors. In this report, gold nano-particles with surface plasmon resonance localized at about 530 nm were synthesized and integrated into graphene/methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) hybrid photodetectors. Compared with pristine graphene-CH3NH3PbI3 devices, a device with gold nanoparticles embedded has a doubly higher photo-responsivity as well as a faster photoresponse speed. The present devices adopt a unique configuration with gold nanoparticles physically separated from the light harvesting component, i.e., the perovskite layer by graphene. Advantages are revealed through a series of characterization techniques and analyses. First, thanks to the tiny thickness of graphene, the plasmonic effect of gold nanoparticles can effectively enhance the near-field of perovskite and thus facilitate light-harvesting. Second, the enhanced light-harvesting in perovskite happens very close to this interface where photo-induced carriers have relatively short paths to diffuse toward graphene, favoring a fast photo-response. This work demonstrates a feasible and inspiring strategy to improve the performance of photodetectors through the surface plasmonic effect of metallic nanostructures.