Self-driven WSe2 photodetectors enabled with asymmetrical van der Waals contact interfaces

Abstract Self-driven photodetectors that can detect light without any external voltage bias are important for low-power applications, including future internet of things, wearable electronics, and flexible electronics. While two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit good optoelectronic properties, the extraordinary properties have not been fully exploited to realize high-performance self-driven photodetectors. In this paper, a metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetector with graphene and Au as the two contacts have been proposed to realize the self-driven photodetector. Van der Waals contacts are formed by dry-transfer methods, which is important in constructing the asymmetrical MSM photodetector to avoid the Fermi-level pinning effect. By choosing graphene and Au as the two contact electrodes, a pronounced photovoltaic effect is obtained. Without any external bias, the self-driven photodetector exhibits a high responsivity of 7.55 A W⁻¹ and an ultrahigh photocurrent-to-dark current ratio of ~10⁸. The photodetector also shows gate-tunable characteristics due to the field-induced Fermi-level shift in the constituent 2D materials. What is more, the high linearity of the photodetector over almost 60 dB suggests the easy integration with processing circuits for practical applications.