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Efficient graphene in-plane homogeneous p-n-p junction based infrared photodetectors with low dark current

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Abstract

Graphene-based photodetectors have drawn a large amount of interests owing to its wide spectral response, however, the high dark current greatly limits their applications. In this study, we develop an efficient graphene in-plane homogeneous p-n-p junction based infrared (IR) photodetector with greatly reduced dark current. The devices with p-n-p junctions exhibit excellent photoresponse to 1.0∼4.0 µm IR light illumination with ultra-low dark current at the order of ∼10−9 A in double p-n-p junctions and 10−13 A in three p-n-p junctions based photodetector, which is three and seven orders of magnitude lower than pristine graphene phototransistors, respectively. The excellent IR photodetection capabilities could be attributed to the synergistic effects of in-plane photovoltaic effects as well as the photogating effects induced carrier injection from the silicon substrate. Our results suggest intriguing potential of graphene in-plane p-n-p junctions for applications in high-performance IR photodetectors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62022081, 61974099, 61705152, 61604102), National Key Research & Development Program (Grant Nos. 2016YFA0201900, 2016YFA0201902), Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices (Grant No. KFJJ202002), and Collaborative Innovation Centre of Suzhou Nano Science & Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130033, China

    Junru An, Bin Wang & Shaojuan Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing, 100049, China

    Junru An, Bin Wang & Shaojuan Li

  3. Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Tian Sun & Jianlong Xu

  4. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Tian Sun

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  1. Junru An
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  2. Tian Sun
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  3. Bin Wang
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  4. Jianlong Xu
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  5. Shaojuan Li
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Correspondence to Jianlong Xu or Shaojuan Li.

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An, J., Sun, T., Wang, B. et al. Efficient graphene in-plane homogeneous p-n-p junction based infrared photodetectors with low dark current. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 64, 140403 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-020-3179-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-020-3179-9

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