Photoresponse of Solution-Synthesized Graphene Nanoribbon Heterojunctions on Diamond Indicating Phototunable Photodiode Polarity

J Am Chem Soc. 2023 Apr 26;145(16):8757-8763. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c13822. Epub 2023 Apr 12.

Abstract

Graphene nanoribbon heterostructures and heterojunctions have attracted interest as next-generation molecular diodes with atomic precision. Their mass production via solution methods and prototypical device integration remains to be explored. Here, the bottom-up solution synthesis and characterization of liquid-phase-processable graphene nanoribbon heterostructures (GNRHs) are demonstrated. Joint photoresponsivity measurements and simulations provide evidence of the structurally defined heterostructure motif acting as a type-I heterojunction. Real-time, time-dependent density functional tight-binding simulations further reveal that the photocurrent polarity can be tuned at different excitation wavelengths. Our results introduce liquid-phase-processable, self-assembled heterojunctions for the development of nanoscale diode circuitry and adaptive hardware.