Unprecedentedly Uniform, Reliable, and Centimeter-Scale Molybdenum Disulfide Negative Differential Resistance Photodetectors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jun 2;13(21):25072-25081. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c02880. Epub 2021 May 20.

Abstract

Negative differential resistance (NDR) can be applied to various devices such as reflection amplifiers, relaxation oscillators, and neuromorphic devices. However, the development of NDR photodetectors with uniformity, stability, and reproducibility for use in practical applications is still lacking. Herein, we demonstrate highly reliable NDR photodetectors by constructing a MoS2/p-Si heterostructure. Owing to the formation of a MoS2 layer with uniform thickness by the plasma-enhanced sulfurization process, a 100% yield with high uniformity (peak-to-valley ratio = 1.195 ± 0.065) was achieved for 120 devices. Furthermore, the proposed NDR photodetectors exhibit unprecedented high cycle-to-cycle endurance, which maintains their NDR characteristics through 100 000 consecutive sweeps without operational failure. This work paves the way for the development of a reliable NDR device and reports unprecedented results of high uniformity, reproducibility, and robustness for practical applications.

Keywords: PECVD; molybdenum disulfide (MoS2); negative differential resistance; photodetectors; transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).