Self-powered semitransparent WS2/LaVO3 vertical-heterostructure photodetectors by employing interfacial hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor and LaVO 3 materials with high absorption coefficients in the visible light region are attractive structures for high-performance photodetector (PD) applications. Insulating 2D hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with a large band gap and excellent transmittance is a very attractive material as an interface between 2D/semiconductor heterostructures. We first introduce WS 2 /h-BN/LaVO 3 semitransparent PD. The photo-current/dark current ratio of the device exhibits a delta-function characteristic of 4 × 10 5 at 0 V, meaning ‘self-powered’. The WS 2 /h-BN/LaVO 3 PD shows up to 0.27 A W −1 responsivity ( R ) and 4.6 × 10 10 cm Hz 1/2 W −1 detectivity ( D *) at 730 nm. Especially, it was confirmed that the D * performance improved by about 5 times compared to the WS 2 /LaVO 3 device at zero bias. Additionally, it is suggested that the PD maintains 87% of its initial R for 2000 h under the atmosphere with a temperature of 25 °C and humidity of 30%. Based on the above results, we suggest that the WS 2 /h-BN/LaVO 3 heterojunction is promising as a self-powered optoelectronic device.