We fabricate paper-supported semiconducting devices by rubbing a layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) crystal onto a piece of paper, similarly to the action of drawing/writing with a pencil on paper. We show that the abrasion between the MoS2 crystal and the paper substrate efficiently exfoliates the crystals, breaking the weak van der Waals interlayer bonds and leading to the deposition of a film of interconnected MoS2 platelets. Employing this simple method, that can be easily extended to other 2D materials, we fabricate MoS2-on-paper broadband photodectectors with spectral sensitivity from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (NIR). We also used these paper-based photodetectors to acquire pictures of objects by mounting the photodetectors in a homebuilt single-pixel camera setup.
Realizing both ultra-low breakdown voltage and ultra-high gain has been one of the major challenges in the development of high-performance avalanche photodetector. Here, we report that an ultra-high avalanche gain of 3*10^5 can be realized in the graphite/InSe Schottky photodetector at a breakdown voltage down to 5.5 V. Remarkably, the threshold breakdown voltage can be further reduced down to 1.8 V by raising the operating temperature, approaching the theoretical limit of 1.5E_g/e with E_g the band gap of semiconductor. We develop a two-dimensional impact ionization model and uncover that obs…
Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) based photodetectors have shown great potential for the next generation optoelectronics. However, most of the reported MoS2 photodetectors function under the photogating effect originated from the charge-trap mechanism, which is difficult for quantitative control. Such devices generally suffer from a poor compromise between response speed and responsivity (R) and large dark current. Here, a dual-gated (DG) MoS2 phototransistor operating based on the interface coupling effect (ICE) is demonstrated. By simultaneously applying a negativ…
Strain engineering, which aims to tune the bandgap of a semiconductor by the application of strain, has emerged as an interesting way to control the electrical and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Apart from the changes in the intrinsic properties of 2D materials, the application of strain can be also used to modify the characteristics of devices based on them. In this work, we study flexible and transparent photodetectors based on single-layer MoS2 under the application of biaxial strain. We find that by controlling the level of strain, we can tune the photoresponsivity (…
Broadband infrared photodetectors have profound importance in diverse applications including security, gas sensing, bioimaging, spectroscopy for food quality, and recycling, just to name a few. Yet, these applications can currently be served by expensive epitaxially grown photodetectors, limiting their market potential and social impact. The use of colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) and 2D-materials in a hybrid layout is an attractive alternative to design low-cost CMOS-compatible infrared photodetectors. However, the spectral sensitivity of these conventional hybrid detectors has been restricted t…
We report on the demonstration of MoS2/GaN UV-visible photodetectors with high spectral responsivity both in UV and in visible regions as well as the observation of MoS2 band-edge in spectral responsivity. Multi-layer MoS2 flakes of thickness ~ 200 nm were exfoliated on epitaxial GaN-on-sapphire, followed by fabrication of detectors in a lateral Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) geometry with Ni/Au contacts which were insulated from the GaN layer underneath by Al2O3 dielectric. Devices exhibited distinct steps in spectral responsivity at 365 nm and at ~ 685 nm with a corresponding photo-to-dark …
We report a high-responsive hot-electron photodetector based on the integration of an Au-MoS$_2$ junction with a silicon nitride microring resonator (MRR) for detecting telecom-band light. The coupling of the evanescent field of the silicon nitride MRR with the Au-MoS$_2$ Schottky junction region enhances the hot-electron injection efficiency. The device exhibits a high responsivity of 154.6 mA W-1 at the wavelength of 1516 nm, and the moderately uniform responsivities are obtained over the wavelength range of 1500 nm-1630 nm. This MRR-enhanced MoS2 hot-electron photodetector offers possibilit…
Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_2$) featuring atomically thin thickness and unique electronic structure with favorable bandgap has been widely recognized as an attractive new material for the development of the next generation of ultra-compact, light-weight optoelectronic components. In parallel, the recently emerged metasurfaces have demonstrated exceptional controllability over electromagnetic field within ultra-compact subwavelength dimension offering an unprecedented approach to improve the performance of optoelectronic devices. In this work, we are proposing an integration of m…
Scalable fabrication of high quality photodetectors derived from synthetically grown monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides is highly desired and important for wide range of nanophotonics applications. We present here scalable fabrication of monolayer MoS2 photodetectors on sapphire substrates through an efficient process, which includes growing large scale monolayer MoS2 via chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and multi-step optical lithography for device patterning and high quality metal electrodes fabrication. In every measured device, we observed the following universal features: (i) negl…
Integrating two-dimensional (2D) crystals into optical fibers can grant them optoelectronic properties and extend their range of applications. However, our ability to produce complicated structures is limited by the challenges of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) manufacturing. Here, we successfully demonstrate a 2D-material heterostructure created on a fiber endface by integrating a microscale multilayer graphene-MoS2-WS2 van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure film on it. Hence, based on simple layer-by-layer transferring, a visible-to-infrared gating-free all-in-fiber photodetector (FPD) is produ…
Wide bandgap semiconductors have become the most attractive materials in optoelectronics in the last decade. Their wide bandgap and intrinsic properties have advanced the development of reliable photodetectors to selectively detect short wavelengths (i.e., ultraviolet, UV) in high temperature regions (up to 300°C). The main driver for the development of high-temperature UV detection instrumentation is in-situ monitoring of hostile environments and processes found within industrial, automotive, aerospace, and energy production systems that emit UV signatures. In this review, a summary of the op…
Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has attracted the interest of the scientific community due to its excellent properties of high carrier mobility, flexibility, strong light-matter interaction and broadband absorption. Despite of its weak light optical absorption and zero band gap, graphene has demonstrated impressive results as active material for optoelectronic devices. This success pushed towards the investigation of new two-dimensional (2D) materials to be employed in a next generation of optoelectronic devices with particular reference to the photodetectors. Indeed, most of 2D material…
Semiconducting 2D materials, such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and other members of the transition metal dichalcogenide family, have emerged as promising materials for applications in high performance nanoelectronics that exhibit excellent electrical and optical properties. Highly efficient photocurrent (PC) generation is reported in vertical few layer MoS2 devices contacted with semitransparent metallic electrodes. The light absorption of the device can be improved by fabricating vertical photodevices using few layer flakes, achieving a photoresponse of up to 0.11 A/W and an external quantu…
Graphene has emerged as an ultrafast optoelectronic material for on-chip photodetector applications. The 2D nature of graphene enables its facile integration with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) microelectronics and silicon photonics, yet graphene absorbs only $\sim$2.3% of light. Plasmonic metals can enhance the responsivity of graphene photodetectors, but may result in CMOS-incompatible devices, depending on the choice of metal. Here, we propose a plasmon-enhanced photothermoelectric graphene detector using CMOS-compatible titanium nitride (TiN) on the silicon-on-insulator (SO…
Integrated photodetectors are essential components of scalable photonics platforms for quantum and classical applications. However, most efforts in the development of such devices to date have been focused on infrared telecommunications wavelengths. Here, we report the first monolithically integrated avalanche photodetector (APD) for visible light. Our devices are based on a doped silicon rib waveguide with a novel end-fire input coupling to a silicon nitride waveguide. We demonstrate a high gain-bandwidth product of 216 $\pm$ 12 GHz at 20 V reverse bias measured for 685 nm input light, with a…
We have fabricated black phosphorus photodetectors and characterized their full spectral responsivity. These devices, which are effectively in the bulk thin film limit, show broadband responsivity ranging from <400 nm to the ~3.8 $μ$m bandgap. In the visible, an intrinsic responsivity >7 A/W can be obtained due to internal gain mechanisms. By examining the full spectral response, we identify a sharp contrast between the visible and infrared behavior. In particular, the visible responsivity shows a large photoconductive gain and gate-voltge dependence, while the infrared responsivity is nearly …
Highly sensitive photodetectors with single photon level detection is one of the key components to a range of emerging technologies, in particular the ever-growing field of optical communication, remote sensing, and quantum computing. Currently, most of the single-photon detection technologies require external biasing at high voltages and/or cooling to low temperatures, posing great limitations for wider applications. Here, we demonstrate InP nanowire array photodetectors that can achieve single-photon level light detection at room temperature without an external bias. We use top-down etched, …
Starting from graphene, 2D layered materials family has been recently set up more than 100 different materials with variety of different class of materials such as semiconductors, metals, semimetals, superconductors. Among these materials, 2D semiconductors have found especial importance in the state of the art device applications compared to that of the current conventional devices such as (which material based for example Si based) field effect transistors (FETs) and photodetectors during the last two decades. This high potential in solid state devices is mostly revealed by the transition me…
We demonstrate experimentally the realization and the characterization of a chip scale integrated photodetector for the visible and the near infrared spectral regime based on the integration of a MoSe2/WS2 heterojunction on top of a silicon nitride waveguide. This configuration achieves high responsivity of ~1 A/W at the wavelength of 780 nm (indicating an internal gain mechanism), while suppressing the dark current to the level of ~50 pA, much lower as compared to a reference sample of just MoSe2 without WS2. We have measured the power spectral density of the dark current to be as low as ~1x1…
Few-layer molybdenum disulfide (FL-MoS$_2$) films have been integrated into amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) pin photodetectors. To achieve this, vertical a-Si:H photodiodes were grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) on top of large-scale synthesized and transferred homogeneous FL-MoS$_2$. This novel detector array exhibits long-term stability (more than six month) and outperforms conventional silicon-based pin photodetectors in the infrared range (IR, $λ$ = 2120 nm) in terms of sensitivities by up to 50 mAW$^{-1}$. Photodetectivities of up to 2 x 10$^{10}$ Jones and external q…
Novel group IVV 2D semiconductors (e.g., GeAs and SiAs) has arisen as an attractive candidate for broad-band photodetection and optoelectronic applications. This 2D family has wide tunable bandgap, excellent thermodynamic stability, and strong in-plane anisotropy. However, their photonic and optoelectronic properties have not been extensively explored so far. In this work we demonstrate a broadband back-to-back metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) Schottky photodiode with asymmetric contact geometries based on multilayered 2D GeAs. The photodetector exhibited a Schottky barrier height (SBH) in the …
