Tunable Quantum Tunneling through a Graphene/Bi2Se3 Heterointerface for the Hybrid Photodetection Mechanism

Hoon Hahn Yoon, Faisal Ahmed, Yunyun Dai, Henry Fernandez Pizarro, Xiaoqi Cui, Xueyin Bai, Diao Li, Mingde Du, Harri Lipsanen, Zhipei Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
200 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Graphene-based van der Waals heterostructures are promising building blocks for broadband photodetection because of the gapless nature of graphene. However, their performance is mostly limited by the inevitable trade-off between low dark current and photocurrent generation. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid photodetection mode based on the photogating effect coupled with the photovoltaic effect via tunable quantum tunneling through the unique graphene/Bi2Se3 heterointerface. The tunneling junction formed between the semimetallic graphene and the topologically insulating Bi2Se3 exhibits asymmetric rectifying and hysteretic current-voltage characteristics, which significantly suppresses the dark current and enhances the photocurrent. The photocurrent-to-dark current ratio increases by about a factor of 10 with the electrical tuning of tunneling resistance for efficient light detection covering the major photonic spectral band from the visible to the mid-infrared ranges. Our findings provide a novel concept of using tunable quantum tunneling for highly sensitive broadband photodetection in mixed-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)58927-58935
Number of pages9
JournalACS applied materials & interfaces
Volume13
Issue number49
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • tunable quantum tunneling
  • graphene
  • topological insulator
  • heterointerface
  • asymmetric barrier
  • hybrid photodetection
  • 2-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS
  • BROAD-BAND
  • HETEROSTRUCTURES
  • RESISTANCE
  • TRANSPORT

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