A High Responsivity Broadband Photodetector Based on a WSe2 NiO Nanowire Heterostructure with Engineered Nanophotonic Enhancement

TL;DR

This paper presents a broadband, high-responsivity photodetector based on a WSe2-NiO nanowire heterostructure that uses nanophotonic enhancement to achieve ultrahigh gain across visible, UV, and NIR wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mixed dimensional heterostructure photodetector with engineered nanophotonic resonances for enhanced light absorption and carrier generation.

Findings

Responsivity of 627 A/W in visible

Responsivity of 227 A/W in UV

Responsivity of 167 A/W in NIR

Abstract

Engineering nanoscale light matter interaction in mixed dimensional semiconductor heterostructures offers a pathway to mitigate the intrinsic gain bandwidth trade off in photodetectors. Here, we report a broadband, high responsivity 2D and 1D photodetector formed by integrating monolayer p type WSe2 with electrospun p type NiO nanowires. The device photoresponse spans 350 to 780 nm and is governed by a nanophotonic field confinement mechanism rather than bulk optical absorption. The high index NiO nanowire acts as a dielectric Mie type nanoresonator that supports geometry defined optical modes and produces antenna like near field concentration at the nanoscale WSe2 and NiO junction. This localized optical mode increases the local absorption cross section and enhances the photocarrier generation rate within the junction region, identified as the dominant active volume for photocurrent. A coupled optoelectronic model linking full wave electromagnetic simulations to carrier generation, recombination, and extraction accurately captures the measured responsivity spectrum and its power dependence using only two electronic fitting parameters. The device achieves responsivities of 627 A/W in the visible region, 227 A/W in the UV, and 167 A/W in the NIR, demonstrating broadband operation with ultrahigh gain. These results show that geometric resonance in mixed dimensional junctions is a powerful design principle for next generation high gain optoelectronic detectors.