Issue 17, 2023

Transfer-printing-enabled GeSn flexible resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors with strain-amplified mid-infrared optical responses

Abstract

Mid-infrared (MIR) flexible photodetectors (FPDs) constitute an essential element for wearable applications, including health-care monitoring and biomedical detection. Compared with organic materials, inorganic semiconductors are promising candidates for FPDs owing to their superior performance as well as optoelectronic properties. Herein, for the first time, we present the use of transfer-printing techniques to enable a cost-effective, nontoxic GeSn MIR resonant-cavity-enhanced FPDs (RCE-FPDs) with strain-amplified optical responses. A narrow bandgap nontoxic GeSn nanomembrane was employed as the active layer, which was grown on a silicon-on-insulator substrate and then transfer-printed onto a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, eliminating the unwanted defects and residual compressive strain, to yield the MIR RCE-FPDs. In addition, a vertical cavity was created for the GeSn active layer to enhance the optical responsivity. Under bending conditions, significant tensile strain up to 0.274% was introduced into the GeSn active layer to effectively modulate the band structure, extend the photodetection in the MIR region, and substantially enhance the optical responsivity to 0.292 A W−1 at λ = 1770 nm, corresponding to an enhancement of 323% compared with the device under flat conditions. Moreover, theoretical simulations were performed to confirm the strain effect on the device performance. The results demonstrated high-performance, nontoxic MIR RCE-FPDs for applications in flexible photodetection.

Graphical abstract: Transfer-printing-enabled GeSn flexible resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors with strain-amplified mid-infrared optical responses

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 des 2022
Accepted
22 mar 2023
First published
25 mar 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 7745-7754

Transfer-printing-enabled GeSn flexible resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors with strain-amplified mid-infrared optical responses

Y. Tai, S. An, P. Huang, Y. Jheng, K. Lee, H. Cheng, M. Kim and G. Chang, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 7745 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR07107J

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