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Position-dependent and millimetre-range photodetection in phototransistors with micrometre-scale graphene on SiC

Nature Nanotechnology volume 12, pages 668–674 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The extraordinary optical and electronic properties of graphene make it a promising component of high-performance photodetectors. However, in typical graphene-based photodetectors demonstrated to date, the photoresponse only comes from specific locations near graphene over an area much smaller than the device size. For many optoelectronic device applications, it is desirable to obtain the photoresponse and positional sensitivity over a much larger area. Here, we report the spatial dependence of the photoresponse in backgated graphene field-effect transistors (GFET) on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates by scanning a focused laser beam across the GFET. The GFET shows a nonlocal photoresponse even when the SiC substrate is illuminated at distances greater than 500 µm from the graphene. The photoresponsivity and photocurrent can be varied by more than one order of magnitude depending on the illumination position. Our observations are explained with a numerical model based on charge transport of photoexcited carriers in the substrate.

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Figure 1: Graphene phototransistor and gate voltage-tunable photocurrent.
Figure 2: Position-dependent photocurrent field effect and photocurrent dynamics.
Figure 3: Laser power-dependent photoresponsivity, and position-sensitive response time.
Figure 4: Model for position-sensitive photoresponse of the GFET.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge partial support for this work from Department of Homeland Security (grant no. 2009-DN-077-ARI036) and Defense Threat Reduction Agency (grant no. HDTRA1-09-1-0047). The authors thank N. Mandal and J. Tian for technical assistance during ultraviolet and NIR photoresponse measurements and fabrication, respectively.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Biddut K. Sarker, Edward Cazalas and Ting-Fung Chung: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Biddut K. Sarker, Ting-Fung Chung, Isaac Childres & Yong P. Chen

  2. Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Biddut K. Sarker, Ting-Fung Chung, Isaac Childres & Yong P. Chen

  3. Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Edward Cazalas & Igor Jovanovic

  4. Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Igor Jovanovic

  5. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Yong P. Chen

  6. Purdue Quantum Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Yong P. Chen

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  1. Biddut K. Sarker
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Contributions

B.K.S., T.-F.C. and I.C. fabricated the devices. B.K.S. and T.-F.C. carried out the measurements. B.K.S. analysed the data. Y.P.C. supervised the project. E.C. and I.J. developed the model with input from the other authors. All authors contributed to interpretation of the results and writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong P. Chen.

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Sarker, B., Cazalas, E., Chung, TF. et al. Position-dependent and millimetre-range photodetection in phototransistors with micrometre-scale graphene on SiC. Nature Nanotech 12, 668–674 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.46

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