High-Performance WSe₂ Phototransistors with 2D/2D Ohmic Contacts

Abstract

We report high-performance WSe₂ phototransistors with two-dimensional (2D) contacts formed between degenerately p-doped WSe₂ and undoped WSe₂ channel. A photoresponsivity of ∼600 mA/W with a high external quantum efficiency up to 100% and a fast response time (both rise and decay times) shorter than 8 μs have been achieved concurrently. More importantly, our WSe₂ phototransistor exhibits a high specific detectivity (∼10¹³ Jones) in vacuum, comparable or higher than commercial Si- and InGaAs-based photodetectors. Further studies have shown that the high photoresponsivity and short response time of our WSe₂ phototransistor are mainly attributed to the lack of Schottky-barriers between degenerately p-doped WSe₂ source/drain contacts and undoped WSe₂ channel, which can reduce the RC time constant and carrier transit time of a photodetector. Our experimental results provide an accessible strategy to achieve high-performance WSe₂ phototransistor architectures by improving their electrical transport and photocurrent generation simultaneously, opening up new avenues for engineering future 2D optoelectronic devices.