Facile Fabrication of Amorphous-In2se3/Si Heterojunction for Fast Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Broadband Photodetection

Abstract

Indium selenide (In2Se3) has emerged as a promising candidate for broadband photodetection due to its suitable bandgap, high electron mobility, high optical absorption coefficient, and broad-spectrum absorption properties. Nevertheless, wafer-scale growth of single-component and pure-phase In2Se3 films remains challenging and requires stringent experimental parameters. Here, a facile approach for depositing amorphous-In2Se3 (a-In2Se3) on Si substrate by physical vapor deposition (PVD) process is proposed to fabricate high-performance a-In2Se3/Si heterojunction photodetectors. The as-produced devices are sensitive to a broad-spectrum (255-1300 nm), exhibiting superior overall performance with low dark current of 0.54 nA, large current on/off ratio of 2.26 × 104, fast response with rise/decay time of 176/175 μs, decent responsivity of 1.50 A/W and detectivity of 6.46 × 1012 Jones under 1050 nm illumination at -3 V bias. Such remarkable results can be attributed to the unique type-I staggered energy band alignment and the strong coupling between a-In2Se3 and Si interface. In addition, decent responsivity and detectivity under 255 nm (0.29 A/W and 1.25 × 1012 Jones) and 630 nm (0.77 A/W and 3.32 × 1012 Jones) remedy the deficiency of Si in ultra-violet and visible light detection. Our work provides a facile and low-cost route for the realization of high-performance broadband photodetectors based on a-In2Se3/Si heterojunctions.

Keywords: In2Se3/Si heterojunction, broadband photodetector, p-p heterojunction, type-I alignment, amorphous material