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Single-crystalline layered metal-halide perovskite nanowires for ultrasensitive photodetectors

Nature Electronics volume 1, pages 404–410 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metal-halide perovskites have long carrier diffusion lengths, low trap densities and high carrier mobilities, and are therefore of value in the development of photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes. However, the presence of thermally activated carriers in the materials leads to high noise levels, which limits their photodetection capabilities. Here, we show that ultrasensitive photodetectors can be created from single-crystalline nanowire arrays of layered metal-halide perovskites. A series of nanowires was fabricated in which layer-by-layer self-organization of insulating organic cations and conductive inorganic frameworks, along the nanowire length, creates high resistance in the interior of the crystals and high conductivity at the edges of the crystals. Using these structures, high-performance photodetection was achieved with responsivities exceeding 1.5 × 104 A W−1 and detectivities exceeding 7 × 1015 jones. Our state-of-the-art device performance originates from a combination of efficient free-carrier edge conduction and resistive hopping barriers in the layered perovskites.

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Fig. 1: Schematics of 2D-perovskite photodetectors.
Fig. 2: Single-crystalline 2D-perovskite nanowires with free-carrier generation at layer edges.
Fig. 3: Photodetector performance of single-crystalline nanowire arrays.
Fig. 4: Transient absorption for 2D-perovskite single-crystalline nanowire arrays.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation (21703268, 21633014), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2182081), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China (2017YFA0204504).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jiangang Feng, Cheng Gong.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jiangang Feng, Hanfei Gao, Xiangyu Jiang, Yuchen Wu & Lei Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

    Jiangang Feng, Hanfei Gao, Wen Wen, Yanjun Gong & Lei Jiang

  3. Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Cheng Gong & Xiang Zhang

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China

    Wen Wen

  5. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecules Science (BNLMS), State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species & Key Laboratory of Photochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yanjun Gong & Yishi Wu

  6. School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Bo Zhang & Lei Jiang

  7. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Hongbing Fu

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  1. Jiangang Feng
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Contributions

J.F., C.G., Yuchen W., L.J. and X.Z. initiated the research and designed the experiments; J.F. and H.G. prepared layered-perovskite nanowire arrays; J.F. performed material characterizations, device fabrication and measurements; J.F., W.W. and Y.G. performed the confocal PL mapping and power-dependent PL characterizations to confirm the edge states; Yishi W. carried out transient absorption measurements under the guidance of H.F.; B.Z. performed wettability simulation. J.F., C.G., Yuchen W., L.J. and X.Z. analysed data; J.F., C.G. and Yuchen W. wrote the manuscript. C.G. and X.Z. provided insights into the physical mechanisms. Yuchen W. and X.Z. guided the work. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuchen Wu, Hongbing Fu or Xiang Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–6, Supplementary Figures 1–32 and Supplementary Tables 1–3

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Feng, J., Gong, C., Gao, H. et al. Single-crystalline layered metal-halide perovskite nanowires for ultrasensitive photodetectors. Nat Electron 1, 404–410 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0101-5

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