High efficiency and fast van der Waals hetero-photodiodes with a unilateral depletion region

Van der Waals (vdW) heterodiodes based on two-dimensional (2D) materials have shown tremendous potential in photovoltaic detectors and solar cells. However, such 2D photovoltaic devices are limited by low quantum efficiencies due to the severe interface recombination and the inefficient contacts. Here, we report an efficient MoS₂/AsP vdW hetero-photodiode utilizing a unilateral depletion region band design and a narrow bandgap AsP as an effective carrier selective contact. The unilateral depletion region is verified via both the Fermi level and the infrared response measurements. The device demonstrates a pronounced photovoltaic behavior with a short-circuit current of 1.3 μA and a large open-circuit voltage of 0.61 V under visible light illumination. Especially, a high external quantum efficiency of 71%, a record high power conversion efficiency of 9% and a fast response time of 9 μs are achieved. Our work suggests an effective scheme to design high-performance photovoltaic devices assembled by 2D materials.