Flexible Filter‐Free Narrowband Photodetector with High Gain and Customized Responsive Spectrum

Abstract

Conventional narrowband photodetection is enabled by coupling broadband photodetectors with complex optical filters. The recently reported charge collection narrowing, an alternative filter‐free strategy, attains very narrowband photodetection at the sacrifice of sensitivity. Herein, a new strategy is proposed to customize the responsive spectrum with high gain by using dye molecules with intrinsically versatile and narrowband absorption. The device configuration is organic dye/Zn0.9Mg0.1O nanoparticles/graphene, where the organic dye serves as the narrowband absorber, graphene serves as the fast carrier transport channel, and Zn0.9Mg0.1O nanoparticles play a triple role of enhancing dye loading, suppressing dye aggregation and blocking charge back recombination. A high responsivity of 8 × 103 A W−1 is thus obtained at a 530 nm response peak with a 60 nm full‐width at half maximum, a four orders of magnitude increase in sensitivity compared to the best narrowband photodetectors reported to date under the comparable electric field. Organic dyes with dual‐band absorption to demonstrate narrowband photodetectors with customized responsive spectrum are further implemented. The approach opens the way to the realization of efficient flexible narrowband photodetection for electronic skin and wearable electronic applications.