Role of Surface Adsorbates on the Photoresponse of (MO)CVD-Grown Graphene-MoS2 Heterostructure Photodetectors

Abstract

A promising strategy toward ultrathin, sensitive photodetectors is the combination of a photoactive semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayer like MoS₂ with highly conductive graphene. Such devices often exhibit a complex and contradictory photoresponse as incident light can trigger both photoconductivity and photoinduced desorption of molecules from the surface. Here, we use metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) to directly grow MoS₂ on top of graphene that is deposited on a sapphire wafer via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for realizing graphene-MoS₂ photodetectors. Two-color optical pump-electrical probe experiments allow for separation of light-induced carrier transfer across the graphene-MoS₂ heterointerface from adsorbate-induced effects. We demonstrate that adsorbates strongly modify both magnitude and sign of the photoconductivity. This is attributed to a change of the graphene doping from p- to n-type in case adsorbates are being desorbed, while in either case, photogenerated electrons are transferred from MoS₂ to graphene. This nondestructive probing method sheds light on the charge carrier transfer mechanisms and the role of adsorbates in two-dimensional (2D) heterostructure photodetectors.

Keywords: 2D heterostructures; 2D semiconductors; MOCVD; graphene; photodetectors; transition-metal dichalcogenides.