Strain-controlled synthesis of ultrathin hexagonal GaTe/MoS2 heterostructure for sensitive photodetection

Fang Li; Mingxing Chen; Yajuan Wang; Xiaoli Zhu; Xuehong Zhang; Zixing Zou; Danliang Zhang; Jiali Yi; Ziwei Li; Dong Li; Anlian Pan

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103031

Strain-controlled synthesis of ultrathin hexagonal GaTe/MoS₂ heterostructure for sensitive photodetection

iScience. 2021 Aug 25;24(9):103031. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103031. eCollection 2021 Sep 24.

Authors

Fang Li^{1

2}, Mingxing Chen³, Yajuan Wang¹, Xiaoli Zhu¹, Xuehong Zhang¹, Zixing Zou¹, Danliang Zhang¹, Jiali Yi¹, Ziwei Li¹, Dong Li¹, Anlian Pan¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Micro-Nano Physics and Technology of Hunan Province, College of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan 410082, China.
² Key Laboratory of Inferior Crude Oil Processing of Guangdong Provincial Higher Education Institutes, School of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, Guangdong 525000, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Matter Microstructure and Function of Hunan Province, Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China.

Abstract

Ultrathin hexagonal GaTe, with relatively high charge density, holds great potential in the field of optoelectronic devices. However, the thermodynamical stability limits it fabrications as well as applications. Here, by introducing two-dimensional MoS₂ as the substrate, we successfully realized the phase-controlled synthesis of ultrathin h-GaTe, leading to high-quality h-GaTe/MoS₂ heterostructures. Theoretical calculation studies reveal that GaTe with hexagonal phase is more thermodynamically stable on MoS₂ templates, which can be attributed to the strain stretching and the formation energy reduction. Based on the achieved p-n heterostructures, optoelectronic devices are designed and probed, where remarkable photoresponsivity (32.5 A/W) and fast photoresponse speed (<50 μs) are obtained, indicating well-behaved photo-sensing behaviors. The study here could offer a good reference for the controlled growth of the relevant materials, and the achieved heterostructure will find promising applications in future integrated electronic and optoelectronic devices and systems.

Keywords: Devices; Materials science; Nanomaterials.