Electrically tunable interlayer recombination and tunneling behavior in WSe2/MoS2 heterostructure for broadband photodetector

Abstract

Electrically tunable band structure and light–matter interaction are of great importance in designing novel devices and constructing high-integrated and high-performance photodetector systems in the future. However, tunable mechanisms on the layered semiconductor, especially the heterojunction, are still unclear. Herein, the WSe₂/MoS₂ phototransistor with dual-gated configuration is fabricated, and its electrical and photoelectrical conversion has been studied to show large tunability. It was found that conduction and rectification characteristics can be tuned by dual gates showing four states, p–i, p–n, i–n, and n–n, as a result of the charging and depletion of WSe₂ and MoS₂. The rectifying ratio can be modulated across a large range from 10^2.5 to 10^−3.2. Its photoelectronic characteristics were observed to exhibit bipolar and wavelength-dependent behaviors. The interlayer recombination of charge carriers dominates the photoresponse of the device under the illumination of visible light, while it is dominated by interlayer tunneling under the illumination of near-infrared wavelengths. This bipolar photoresponse is associated with different states of band alignment, which can be switched by dual-gating modulation. Finally, by tuning the gate voltage, responsivities reach 27 445 A W⁻¹ and 2827 A W⁻¹ at wavelengths of 400 and 1010 nm at room temperature, respectively, which directly extends the response region from visible light to near-infrared.