Hybrid Photodetector Research Articles

Ultrasensitive self-powered large area planar GaN UV-photodetector using reduced graphene oxide electrodes

A simplistic design of a self-powered UV-photodetector device based on hybrid reduced-graphene-oxide (r-GO)/gallium nitride (GaN) is demonstrated. Under zero bias, the fabricated hybrid photodetector shows a photosensivity of ∼85% while the ohmic contact GaN photodetector with an identical device structure exhibits only ∼5.3% photosensivity at 350 nm illumination (18 μW/cm2). The responsivity and detectivity of the hybrid device were found to be 1.54 mA/W and 1.45 × 1010 Jones (cm Hz½ W−1), respectively, at zero bias with fast response (60 ms), recovery time (267 ms), and excellent repeatability. Power density-dependent responsivity and detectivity revealed ultrasensitive behaviour under low light conditions. The source of the observed self-powered effect in the hybrid photodetector is attributed to the depletion region formed at the r-GO and GaN quasi-ohmic interface.

Novel UV-Visible Photodetector in Photovoltaic Mode with Fast Response and Ultrahigh Photosensitivity Employing Se/TiO2 Nanotubes Heterojunction.

A feasible strategy for hybrid photodetector by integrating an array of self-ordered TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) and selenium is demonstrated to break the compromise between the responsivity and response speed. Novel heterojunction between the TiO2 NTs and Se in combination with the surface trap states at TiO2 help regulate the electron transport and facilitate the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs under photovoltaic mode (at zero bias), leading to a high responsivity of ≈100 mA W-1 at 620 nm light illumination and the ultrashort rise/decay time (1.4/7.8 ms). The implanting of intrinsic p-type Se into TiO2 NTs broadens the detection range to UV-visible (280-700 nm) with a large detectivity of over 1012 Jones and a high linear dynamic range of over 80 dB. In addition, a maximum photocurrent of ≈107 A is achieved at 450 nm light illumination and an ultrahigh photosensitivity (on/off ratio up to 104 ) under zero bias upon UV and visible light illumination is readily achieved. The concept of employing novel heterojunction geometry holds great potential to pave a new way to realize high performance and energy-efficient optoelectronic devices for practical applications.

Integrated high responsivity photodetectors based on graphene/glass hybrid waveguide.

We propose and fabricate an integrated graphene/glass hybrid photodetector (PD) with high responsivity and broad spectral bandwidth. The glass straight waveguide enables high absorption of the evanescent light of transverse magnetic (TM) mode propagating parallel to the single layer of graphene. It is based on the mechanism of light-induced change in conductance. As a result, a responsivity as high as 0.72 A/W at a low bias voltage of -0.1 V for a wide wavelength range from 1510 to 1630 nm is experimentally obtained. The proposed graphene/glass hybrid PD could find important applications in graphene-based photonic integrated circuits.

Room-temperature mid-infrared photodetector in all-carbon graphene nanoribbon-C_60 hybrid nanostructure

Graphene has emerged as a promising candidate for optoelectronic applications due to its broadband absorption and ultrafast carrier mobility. However, its prominent disadvantages, i.e., the zero bandgap and ultrafast carrier lifetime, limit its usage in optoelectronic applications. Although patterning graphene into nanoribbons is an effective strategy to open a bandgap, it still remains a challenge to reduce the surface and edge scattering and recombination of the photoexcited carriers. Here, we fabricated an all-carbon graphene nanoribbon-C60 hybrid nanostructure that is able to achieve a high photoresponsivity of 0.4 A/W under mid-infrared laser illumination at room temperature. Such a high performance is achieved through the high electron trapping efficiency of the C60 film as deposited onto 10 nm wide graphene nanoribbons. This all-carbon hybrid photodetector paves the way toward achieving flexible and broadband photodetectors for various applications such as imaging, remote optical sensing, and infrared camera sensors.

Enhancement of optical features and sensitivity of MEH-PPV/VOPcPhO photodetector using CdSe quantum dots

In the present work, spectroscopic features and sensitivity of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and vanadyl 2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H-phthalocyanine (VOPcPhO) based photodetector have been improved by employing cadmium selenide quantum dots (CdSe QDs). The incorporation of CdSe QDs has heightened the optical absorption, particularly in the range of 400–560nm. The MEH-PPV:VOPcPhO:CdSe based hybrid photodetector (PD) has been investigated under the influence of illumination levels varying from 0–140mW/cm2. The PD fabricated with CdSe QDs is found to be 3.2 times faster in response time and 2 times quicker in the recovery time as compared to the PD without CdSe QDs.

Hybrid Photodetector Based on ZnO Nanofiber Polymers With High Spectrum Selectivity

One-dimensional ZnO nanofibers were synthesized by the electrospinning method. Then, a high spectrum selectivity ultraviolet detector was fabricated based on poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and ZnO hybrids. At 4 V reverse bias, the dark current of the detector was as low as 9.6 nA. The device showed a large photo-to-dark current ratio of more than two orders of magnitude. Under the irradiation of 330 nm UV light, a peak responsivity of 2.62 A/W was achieved. The high photoresponse was attributed to the efficient carrier separation and convenient charge transport between ZnO and PVK. In addition, the detector possessed a narrow full-width at half-maximum of $\sim 36$ nm.

Performance improvement of ZnO/P3HT hybrid UV photo-detector by interfacial Au nanolayer

In this study, a hybrid ultraviolet (UV) photo detector comprising of hydrothermally grown highly oriented Zinc Oxide nanorod arrays (ZnO NRAs) and Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) as an active layer was fabricated and characterized. These hybrid photo detectors demonstrated a high rectification ratio (∼117) and responsivity of 10.7A/W at −2V under incident light of wavelength 325nm. Further to investigate the effect of surface plasmon property of metal nanoparticles on the performance of hybrid UV photo detectors, ZnO NRAs were capped with dc sputtered gold (Au) metal nanolayer (∼5nm) at the ZnO-P3HT interface, prior to coating P3HT layer on top of it. It was found out that upon Au coating the absorption of the ZnO was enhanced partly in the ultraviolet and visible region. In consequence the rectification ratio and responsivity of the hybrid photo detector was enhanced drastically from 117 to 1167 and 10.7 to 17.7A/W respectively. Interestingly the reduction in dark current was observed on Au coating and it was revealed that Au nanoparticles play a key role in enhancing the performance of the hybrid photo detectors.

Organic Dye Graphene Hybrid Structures with Spectral Color Selectivity

This study characterizes a hybrid structure formed between graphene and organic dye molecules for use in photodetectors with spectral color selectivity. Rhodamine‐based organic dye molecules with red, green, or blue light absorption profiles are deposited onto a graphene surface by dip‐coating. UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, charge transport measurements, and density functional theory based calculations reveal that the photoresponses of the dye graphene hybrid films are governed by the light absorption of the dye molecules and also by the photo‐excited‐charge‐transfer‐induced photocurrent gain. The hybrid films respond only to photons with an energy exceeding the band gap of the immobilized dye. Dye‐Graphene charge transfer is affected by the distance and direction of the dipole moment between the two layers. The resulting hybrid films exhibit spectral color selectivities with responsivities of ≈103 A W−1 and specific detectivities of ≈1010 Jones. This study demonstrates the successful operation of photodetectors with a full‐color optical bandwidth using hybrid graphene structures coated with a mixture of dyes. The strategy of building a simple hybrid photodetector can further offer many opportunities to be also tuned for other optical functionalities using a variety of commercially available dye molecules.

Interface Engineering To Boost Photoresponse Performance of Self-Powered, Broad-Bandwidth PEDOT:PSS/Si Heterojunction Photodetector.

PSS/Si heterojunction is built by a facial low temperature spin-coating method. By interface engineering of heterojunction with optimal band alignment and heteromicrostructures, enhanced photoresponse performances are obtained. The bandwidth of the hybrid photodetector could be broadened by 10 kHz after interfacial passivation by a methyl group. Further manipulating the geometrical structure of the hybrid heterojunction with silicon nanowire, a broad spectrum response from 300 to 1100 nm, with bandwidth as high as 40.6 kHz, fast response speed of 2.03 μs and high detection of 4.1 × 10(11) Jones under zero bias was achieved. Meanwhile, the close dependence between the photoresponse performance of heterojunctions and Si nanowire length is observed in the top-coverage configuration. Finally, a coverage effects model is proposed based on the competition of Si bulk and surface recombination, which is also confirmed by the designed bottom-coverage experiment. The mechanisms behind the enhanced photoresponse of the hybrid photodetector is attributed to the optimum band alignment, as well as the optimum balance of carrier dissociation and recombination of heterojunction. The scalable and low temperature method would be of great convenience for large-scale fabrication of the PSS/Si hybrid photodetector.

High- and Reproducible-Performance Graphene/II-VI Semiconductor Film Hybrid Photodetectors.

High- and reproducible-performance photodetectors are critical to the development of many technologies, which mainly include one-dimensional (1D) nanostructure based and film based photodetectors. The former suffer from a huge performance variation because the performance is quite sensitive to the synthesis microenvironment of 1D nanostructure. Herein, we show that the graphene/semiconductor film hybrid photodetectors not only possess a high performance but also have a reproducible performance. As a demo, the as-produced graphene/ZnS film hybrid photodetector shows a high responsivity of 1.7 × 107 A/W and a fast response speed of 50 ms, and shows a highly reproducible performance, in terms of narrow distribution of photocurrent (38–65 μA) and response speed (40–60 ms) for 20 devices. Graphene/ZnSe film and graphene/CdSe film hybrid photodetectors fabricated by this method also show a high and reproducible performance. The general method is compatible with the conventional planar process, and would be easily standardized and thus pay a way for the photodetector applications.

Integrating an electrically active colloidal quantum dot photodiode with a graphene phototransistor.

The realization of low-cost photodetectors with high sensitivity, high quantum efficiency, high gain and fast photoresponse in the visible and short-wave infrared remains one of the challenges in optoelectronics. Two classes of photodetectors that have been developed are photodiodes and phototransistors, each of them with specific drawbacks. Here we merge both types into a hybrid photodetector device by integrating a colloidal quantum dot photodiode atop a graphene phototransistor. Our hybrid detector overcomes the limitations of a phototransistor in terms of speed, quantum efficiency and linear dynamic range. We report quantum efficiencies in excess of 70%, gain of 105 and linear dynamic range of 110 dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 1.5 kHz. This constitutes a demonstration of an optoelectronically active device integrated directly atop graphene and paves the way towards a generation of flexible highly performing hybrid two-dimensional (2D)/0D optoelectronics.

Phase-reference monitoring in coherent-state discrimination assisted by a photon-number resolving detector.

Phase estimation represents a crucial challenge in many fields of Physics, ranging from Quantum Metrology to Quantum Information Processing. This task is usually pursued by means of interferometric schemes, in which the choice of the input states and of the detection apparatus is aimed at minimizing the uncertainty in the estimation of the relative phase between the inputs. State discrimination protocols in communication channels with coherent states also require the monitoring of the optical phase. Therefore, the problem of phase estimation is relevant to face the issue of coherent states discrimination. Here we consider a quasi-optimal Kennedy-like receiver, based on the interference of two coherent signals, to be discriminated, with a reference local oscillator. By means of the Bayesian processing of a small amount of data drawn from the outputs of the shot-by-shot discrimination protocol, we demonstrate the achievement of the minimum uncertainty in phase estimation, also in the presence of uniform phase noise. Moreover, we show that the use of photon-number resolving detectors in the receiver improves the phase-estimation strategy, especially with respect to the usually employed on/off detectors. From the experimental point of view, this comparison is realized by employing hybrid photodetectors.

Horizontally-connected ZnO-graphene hybrid films for multifunctional devices

Here we designed horizontally-connected ZnO thin films and graphene in order to combine advantages of ZnO thin films, which are high on/off ratio and photo responsivity, and the superior mobility and sensitivity of graphene for applications in thin film transistors (TFTs) and flexible photodetectors. To synthesize the ZnO/graphene hybrid films, a 70-nm-thick ZnO thin film with a uniformly flat surface deposited by the atomic layer deposition process was horizontally connected with highly crystalline monolayer graphene grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition. The photocurrent on-off ratio, response time, and recovery time of the hybrid photodetectors were estimated to be 102, 34s, and 27s, respectively. The photocurrent from the hybrid photodetector decreased only by two-fold, whereas a significant decrease in photocurrent by two orders of magnitude was observed from the ZnO thin film based photodetectors after 105 cycles of 5-mm radius bending. The hybrid TFT exhibited unipolar n-channel transistor behavior with electron mobility of 68.7cm2/Vs and on-off ratio of 107.

Graphene Coupled with Silicon Quantum Dots for High‐Performance Bulk‐Silicon‐Based Schottky‐Junction Photodetectors

Graphene is coupled with silicon quantum dots (Si QDs) on top of bulk Si to form a hybrid photodetector. Si QDs cause an increase of the built-in potential of the graphene/Si Schottky junction while reducing the optical reflection of the photodetector. Both the electrical and optical contributions of Si QDs enable a superior performance of the photodetector.

Tunable bandgap in hybrid perovskite CH3NH3Pb(Br3−yXy) single crystals and photodetector applications

We report the synthesis of CH3NH3Pb(Br3−yXy) (X=Cl and I) single crystals via a stepwise temperature control approach. High-quality CH3NH3Pb(Br3−yXy) crystals with a tunable bandgap from 1.92eV to 2.53eV have been prepared successfully in this way. And further experiments revealed the influence of halogen content and preparation temperature on the structural and optical properties of these crystals. It is observed that chlorine can lower the critical nucleation energy, which results in crystallizing at lower temperature with the chlorine content increasing, while the nucleation energy increases slowly with increasing iodine content. Moreover, in contrast to Frank–van der Merwe growth with low heating rate, high heating rate leads to a mass of small size single crystals and Stranski-Krastanov growth. The single crystals with tunable band gap and impressive characteristics enable us to fabricate high performance photodetectors for different wavelengths.

21aCA-2 ハイパーカミオカンデにむけた大口径ハイブリッド型光検出器の応答一様性と入射位置検出感度の評価

21aCA-2 ハイパーカミオカンデにむけた大口径ハイブリッド型光検出器の応答一様性と入射位置検出感度の評価

Solution-processed photodetectors based on organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite and nanocrystalline graphite

We present here solution-processed photodetectors based on a methyl ammonium lead iodide perovskite (MAPbI3) and nanocrystalline graphite (NCG) hybrid composite. The highest responsivity of the best MAPbI3/NCG photodetector was 795 mA W−1 at 500 nm visible light, which is almost twice as high as that of the NCG-free MAPbI3 photodetector (408 mA W−1). The enhanced performance of the MAPbI3/NCG photodetector arises from the improved charge extraction at the MAPbI3/NCG interface. The dependence of photodetector performance on the mass percentage of NCG (the ratio of NCG to MAPbI3) in the hybrid materials is also reported here, and is correlated to the fabrication process. Moreover, by comparing the responsivity of the devices with different channel lengths, we show that the performance of hybrid photodetectors can be further tuned by tailoring the channel length.

Broadband, sensitive and spectrally distinctive SnS2 nanosheet/PbS colloidal quantum dot hybrid photodetector.

Photodetectors convert photons into current or voltage outputs and are thus widely used for spectroscopy, imaging and sensing. Traditional photodetectors generally show a consistent-polarity response to incident photons within their broadband responsive spectrum. Here we introduced a new type of photodetector employing SnS2 nanosheets sensitized with PbS colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) that are not only sensitive (~105 A W−1) and broadband (300–1000 nm) but also spectrally distinctive, that is, show distinctive (positive or negative) photoresponse toward incident photons of different wavelengths. A careful mechanism study revealed illumination-modulated Schottky contacts between SnS2 nanosheets and Au electrodes, altering the photoresponse polarity toward incident photons of different wavelengths. Finally, we applied our SnS2 nanosheet/PbS CQDs hybrid photodetector to differentiate the color temperature of emission from a series of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs), showcasing the unique application of our novel photodetectors.

TiO2 Nanowires/Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Based Hybrid Photodetector: Improved Light Detection.

Hybrid photodetector with a maximum external quantum efficiency of ~3.08% in the UV region at 370 nm, was fabricated by spin-coated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer onto glancing angle deposited (GLAD) vertically aligned TiO2 nanowire (NW) arrays. The TiO2 NWs/PMMA detector shows excellent rectification and constant 1.3 times photo-responsivity in the reverse bias condition from -1 V to -10 V. The photodiode possesses a low ideality factor of 5.1 as compared to bared TiO2 NWs device of 7.1. The hybrid device produces sharp turn-on of -0.8 s and turn-off transient of -0.9 s respectively.

Self-Powered Broadband Photodetector using Plasmonic Titanium Nitride.

We report the demonstration of plasmonic titanium nitride (TiN) for fabrication of an efficient hybrid photodetector. A novel synthesis method based on plasma nanotechnology is utilized for producing air stable plasma polymerized aniline-TiN (PPA-TiN) nanocomposite and its integration in photodetector geometry. The device performs as a self-powered detector that responds to ultraviolet and visible light at zero bias. The photodetector has the advantage of broadband absorption and outcomes an enhanced photoresponse including high responsivity and detectivity under low light conditions. This work opens up a new direction for plasmonic TiN-based hybrid nanocomposite and its exploitation in optoelectronic applications including imaging, light-wave communication and wire-free route for artificial vision.