High-Responsivity Photodetector Based on a Suspended Monolayer Graphene/RbAg₄I₅ Composite Nanostructure

Graphene has excellent electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties that make it an ideal optoelectronic material. However, it still has some problems, such as a very low light absorption rate, which means it cannot meet the application requirements of high-performance optoelectronic devices. Here, we produce a high-responsivity photodetector based on a monolayer graphene/RbAg4I5 composite nanostructure. With the aid of poly(methyl methacrylate), we suspend the monolayer graphene on a hollow carving groove with a width of 100 μm. A RbAg4I5 film evaporated on the back of the graphene causes the composite nanostructure to generate a large photocurrent under periodic illumination. Experimental results show that the dissociation and recombination of ion–electron bound states (IEBSs) are responsible for the excellent photoresponse. The device has very high (>1 A W–1) responsivity in wide-band illumination wavelength from 375 nm to 808 nm, especially at 375 nm, where it shows a responsivity of up to ∼5000 A W–1. We designed the dimensions of the carving groove to allow the light spot to cover the entire groove, and we cut the graphene sheet to match the length of the carving groove. With the structural optimizations, the energy of light can be used more efficiently to dissociate the IEBSs, which greatly improves the photoresponse of optoelectronic devices based on the proposed monolayer graphene/RbAg4I5 composite nanostructure.