Strain enhancement for a MoS₂-on-GaN photodetector with an Al₂O₃ stress liner grown by atomic layer deposition

Abstract

Strain regulation as an effective way to enhance the photoelectric properties of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides has been widely employed to improve the performance of photovoltaic devices. In this work, tensile strain was introduced in multilayer <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m1"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>MoS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> grown on GaN by depositing 3 nm of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m2"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Al</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> on the surface. The temperature-dependent Raman spectrum shows that the thermal stability of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m3"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>MoS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> is improved by <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m4"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Al</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Theoretical simulations confirmed the existence of tensile strain on <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m5"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>MoS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> covered with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m6"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Al</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , and the bandgap and electron effective mass of six layers of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m7"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>MoS</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> decreased due to tensile strain, which resulted in an increase of electron mobility. Due to the tensile strain effect, the photodetector with the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m8"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Al</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> stress liner achieved better performance under the illumination of 365 nm wavelength, including a higher responsivity of 24.6 A/W, photoconductive gain of 520, and external quantum efficiency of 8381%, which are more than twice the corresponding values of photodetectors without <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m9"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>Al</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Our work provides an effective technical way for improving the performance of 2D material photodetectors.