Photo-thermionic effect in vertical graphene heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel photo-thermionic effect in graphene-WSe2-graphene heterostructures, enabling broadband, ultrafast detection of sub-bandgap photons through hot carrier emission driven by thermal energy transfer.

Contribution

It introduces the photo-thermionic effect in vertical graphene heterostructures as a new optoelectronic mechanism for low-energy photon detection.

Findings

Enables detection of sub-bandgap photons.

Demonstrates broadband and ultrafast response.

Shows size scalability and electrical tunability.

Abstract

Finding alternative optoelectronic mechanisms that overcome the limitations of conventional semiconductor devices is paramount for detecting and harvesting low-energy photons. A highly promising approach is to drive a current from the thermal energy added to the free-electron bath as a result of light absorption. Successful implementation of this strategy requires a broadband absorber where carriers interact among themselves more strongly than with phonons, as well as energy-selective contacts to extract the excess electronic heat. Here we show that graphene-WSe2-graphene heterostructure devices offer this possibility through the photo-thermionic effect: the absorbed photon energy in graphene is efficiently transferred to the electron bath, leading to a thermalized hot carrier distribution. Carriers with energy higher than the Schottky barrier between graphene and WSe2 can be emitted over the barrier, thus creating photocurrent. We experimentally demonstrate that the photo-thermionic effect enables detection of sub-bandgap photons, while being size-scalable, electrically tunable, broadband and ultrafast.