Highly-sensitive, gate-tunable, room-temperature mid-infrared photodetection based on graphene-Bi2Se3 heterostructure

Abstract

Broadband detection of mid-infrared (IR) photons extends to advanced optoelectronic applications such as imaging, sensing, and telecommunications. While graphene offers an attractive platform for broadband visible/IR photodetection, previous efforts to improve its responsivity, for example, by integrating light-absorbing colloids or waveguide or antenna fabrication, were achieved at the cost of reduced photon detection bandwidth. In this work, we demonstrate room-temperature operation of a novel mid-IR photodetector based on a graphene-Bi2Se3 heterostructure showing broadband detection and high responsivity (1.97 and 8.18 A/W at mid-and near-IR, respectively), in which simultaneous improvement of the spectral range and responsivity is achieved via exploiting broadband absorption of mid-1R and IR photons in a small-band-gap Bi2Se3 topological insulator and efficient hot carrier separation and strong photogating across the Bi2Se3/graphene interface. With sufficient room for further improvement by interface engineering, our results show a promising route to realize ultrabroadband, high-responsivity hot-carrier optoelectronics at room temperature.