Wafer-scale arrayed p-n junctions based on few-layer epitaxial GaTe

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates wafer-scale growth of high-quality GaTe 2D material with arrayed p-n junctions on silicon wafers, achieving high-performance optoelectronic devices suitable for large-scale production and integration with silicon technology.

Contribution

It introduces a layer-by-layer molecular beam epitaxy method for wafer-scale GaTe growth and develops arrayed p-n junctions with excellent optoelectronic performance on silicon wafers.

Findings

High photoresponsivity of 2.74 A/W

Quantum efficiency up to 62%

Stable operation over 1.37 million cycles

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted substantial attention in electronic and optoelectronic applications with superior advantages of being flexible, transparent and highly tunable. Gapless graphene exhibits ultra-broadband and fast photoresponse while the 2D semiconducting MoS2 and GaTe unveil high sensitivity and tunable responsivity to visible light. However, the device yield and the repeatability call for a further improvement of the 2D materials to render large-scale uniformity. Here we report a layer-by-layer growth of wafer-scale GaTe with a hole mobility of 28.4 cm2/Vs by molecular beam epitaxy. The arrayed p-n junctions were developed by growing few-layer GaTe directly on three-inch Si wafers. The resultant diodes reveal good rectifying characteristics, photoresponse with a maximum photoresponsivity of 2.74 A/W and a high photovoltaic external quantum efficiency up to 62%. The photocurrent reaches saturation fast enough to capture a time constant of 22 {\mu}s and shows no sign of device degradation after 1.37 million cycles of operation. Most strikingly, such high performance has been achieved across the entire wafer, making the volume production of devices accessible. Finally, several photo-images were acquired by the GaTe/Si photodiodes with a reasonable contrast and spatial resolution, demonstrating for the first time the potential of integrating the 2D materials with the silicon technology for novel optoelectronic devices.