Tunable Graphene–Silicon Heterojunctions for Ultrasensitive Photodetection

We present the photodetection properties of graphene/Si heterojunctions both in the photocurrent and photovoltage modes. Monolayer graphene/Si junctions were found to be excellent weak-signal detectors with photovoltage responsivity exceeding 10(7) V/W and with noise-equivalent-power reaching ∼1 pW/Hz(1/2), potentially capable of distinguishing materials with transmittance, T = 0.9995 in a 0.5 s integration time. In the photocurrent mode, the response was found to remain linear over at least six decades of incident power (P), with tunable responsivity up to 435 mA/W (corresponding to incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) > 65%) obtained by layer thickening and doping. With millisecond-scale responses…

• NS
  National Science Foundation