Bendable Photodetector on Fibers Wrapped with Flexible Ultrathin Single Crystalline Silicon Nanomembranes.

Abstract

Silicon (Si) nanomembranes (NMs) enable conformal covering on complicated surfaces for novel applications. We adopt classical fibers as flexible/curved substrates and wrap them with freestanding ultrathin Si-NMs with a thickness of ∼20 nm. Intrinsic defects in single-crystalline Si-NMs provide a flow path for hydrofluoric acid (HF) to release the NM with a consecutive area of ∼0.25 cm2. Such Si-NMs with ultralow flexural rigidities are transferred onto a single-mode fiber (SMF) and functionalized into bendable photodetectors, which detects the leaked light when the fiber is bent. Our demonstration exemplifies optoelectronic applications in flexible photodetector for Si-NMs in a three-dimensional (3D) geometry.