van der Waals Complementary Barrier Infrared Detector.

Xu, Xiangbao; Chen, Jiachang; Wu, Haitao; Guo, Dezheng; Li, Jialin; Zhang, Songsong; Xiao, Yunlong; Deng, Ke et al. · ACS Nano · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Infrared photodetectors have garnered significant attention in modern optoelectronics due to various applications. However, uncooled infrared photodetectors based on narrow-bandgap materials suffer from high dark current arising from thermal carrier excitation, posing a major challenge in achieving state-of-the-art infrared photodetectors with a blackbody response. In this work, we propose a van der Waals (vdW) complementary barrier infrared detector (CBD), which is composed of an electron barrier from gold/black phosphorus (Au/BP) Schottky contact and a hole barrier from molybdenum disulfide (MoS<sub>2</sub>). The device effectively suppresses the diffusion dark current, achieving a low dark current of 0.1 μA at -0.1 V. Furthermore, the device demonstrates excellent infrared response with gate-tunable characteristics, exhibiting a peak detectivity of 8.37 × 10<sup>9</sup> cm Hz<sup>1/2</sup> W<sup>-1</sup> under blackbody radiation at room temperature. Additionally, the CBD shows strong infrared polarization detection with an anisotropy ratio of 13.9 and exhibits sensitive nondispersive infrared (NDIR) gas detection capability, with a detection limit for methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) as low as 23.9 ppm. This work provides a promising strategy for the design of room-temperature high-performance vdW infrared photodetectors.