Directing the flow of photocurrent

Abstract

Optoelectronics The next generation of information-processing devices is expected to be more energy efficient if the spin or valley degrees of freedom of a material is used to encode and carry information. Rasmita et al. show that circularly polarized light can induce a directional photocurrent in heterostructures of the two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides MoS2 and WSe2. The authors show that the direction of current flow is dependent on the polarization state of the light, and further control can be achieved with back-gating and an in-plane electric field. Combined with the possibility of engineering the heterostructures and the number of materials available with different properties, this work demonstrates that the monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides can serve as a versatile platform for future optoelectronic device technology. Optica 7 , 1204 (2020).