Non‐Volatile and Gate‐Controlled Multistate Photovoltaic Response in WSe₂/h‐BN/Graphene Semi‐Floating Gate Field‐Effect Transistors

Abstract Semi‐floating gate field‐effect transistors (SFG‐FETs) based on 2D materials have received much attention due to their unique optoelectronic characteristics, potential applications in near‐memory computing and constructing sensing‐memory‐processing units. Here, the non‐volatile and gate‐controlled multistate photovoltaic response of a WSe₂/h‐BN/graphene SFG‐FET is investigated both in experimental and theoretical aspects. Due to the ambipolar carrier transport of WSe₂ channel, both electrons and holes can be stored in the graphene floating gate layer, which results in two evident memory windows on the round sweep transfer characteristic curve. Different charge‐stored states of the SFG layer enable the channel to form a lateral junction that can be adjusted by the gate voltage, which leads to the gate‐controlled multistate photovoltaic response. A theoretical model is implemented to explain the memory and the multistate photovoltaic response behaviors in a quasi‐quantitative level. The relationship between the charge‐stored states in the SFG and the photo‐response, as well as its dependence on the gate voltage are systematically analyzed. These research results provide a reliable way for realizing high‐performance multi‐functional photodetectors based on SFG‐FETs and for thorough understanding the complicated optoelectronic behaviors of SFG‐FETs.