Transition metal dichalcogenide heterojunction PN diode toward ultimate photovoltaic benefits

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors as van der Waals (vdW) materials have attracted much attention from researchers. Among many 2D TMDC materials, a few layer-thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten diselenide (WSe2) have been most intensively studied respectively as 2D n- and p-type semiconductors. Here, we have fabricated vertical vdW heterojunction n-MoS2/p-WSe2 diode with a few tens nm-thick layers by using vertically-sandwiched ohmic terminals, so that no quasi neutral region may exist between two terminals. As a result, we obtained high photo responsivity at zero volt without any electric power, and it appears comparable to those of commercially-optimized Si PN diode. Photo-voltage output of 0.3 V was easily obtained from our vdW PN diode as open circuit voltage, and can be doubled up to 0.6 V by using two PN diodes. These beneficial photovoltaic results from vdW PN diode were directly applied to PV switching dynamics and transistor photo gating, for the first time. We regard that our vdW n-MoS2/p-WSe2 heterojunction diode could maximize its photovoltaic energy benefits with optimized TMDC thicknesses.