High-efficiency photoelectric detector based on a p-n homojunction of monolayer black phosphorus

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a monolayer black phosphorus p-n homojunction exhibits enhanced photocurrent due to built-in electric fields and structural features, with potential for high-efficiency photoelectric devices and orbital-resolved detection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical investigation of photocurrent enhancement in MBP p-n homojunctions using advanced simulation methods.

Findings

Photocurrent is significantly enhanced across a wide photon energy range.

Photocurrent depends on the polarizing angle, revealing orbital information.

Potential for high-efficiency photoelectric and orbital-resolved photovoltaic applications.

Abstract

We numerically investigate the high-efficiency photovoltaic effect in lateral p-n homojunction based on monolayer black phosphorus (MBP) by using the non-equilibrium Green's function combined with the density functional theory. Due to the built-in electric field of the p-n junction and the wrinkle structure of MBP, the photocurrent excited by either linearly or elliptically polarized light is significantly enhanced in a wide photon energy range. Moreover, because of the electron-photon interaction, the photocurrent is related to atomic orbitals through the polarizing angle of polarized light. Therefore, we can read the orbital information of the band structure from the polarizing angular distribution of photocurrent. These findings suggest the promising application of MBP-based p-n homojunction in high-efficiency photoelectric devices and orbital-resolved photovoltaic detection.