Recent Progress in Photodetectors: From Materials to Structures and Applications

Photodetectors are critical components in a wide range of applications, from imaging and sensing to communications and environmental monitoring. Recent advancements in material science have led to the development of emerging photodetecting materials, such as perovskites, polymers, novel two-dimensional materials, and quantum dots, which offer unique optoelectronic properties and high tunability. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the synthesis methodologies for these cutting-edge materials, highlighting their potential to enhance photodetection performance. Additionally, we explore the design and fabrication of photodetectors with novel structures and physics, emphasizing devices that achieve high figure-of-merit parameters, such as enhanced sensitivity, fast response times, and broad spectral detection. Finally, we discuss the demonstration of new applications enabled by these advanced photodetectors, including flexible and wearable devices, next-generation imaging systems, and environmental sensing technologies. Through this review, we aim to provide insights into the current trends and future directions in the field of photodetection, guiding further research and development in this rapidly evolving area.

Epitaxial Growth of CsPbBr3 Pyramids/CdS Nanobelt Heterostructures for High-Performance Photodetectors

Perovskites have great potential for optoelectronic applications due to their high photoluminescence quantum yield, large absorption coefficient, great defect tolerance, and adjustable band gap. Perovskite heterostructures may further enhance the performance of optoelectronic devices. So far, however, most of perovskite heterostructures are fabricated by mechanical stacking or spin coating, which could introduce a large number of defects or impurities at the heterointerface owing to the random stacking process. Herein, we report the epitaxial growth of CsPbBr3 pyramids/CdS nanobelt heterostructures via a 2-step vapor deposition route. The CsPbBr3 triangular pyramids are well aligned on the surface of CdS nanobelts with the epitaxial relationships of (0-22)CsPbBr3||(1-20)CdS and (-211)CsPbBr3||(002)CdS. Time-resolved photoluminescence results reveal that effective charge transfer occurred at the heterointerface, which can be attributed to the type-II band arrangement. Theoretical simulations reveal that the unique CsPbBr3 pyramids/CdS nanobelt structure facilitates diminishing the reflection losses and enhancing the light absorption. The photodetector based on these CsPbBr3 pyramids/CdS nanobelt heterostructures exhibited an ultrahigh photoswitching ratio of 2.14 × 105, a high responsivity up to 4.07 × 104 A/W, a high detectivity reaching 1.36 × 1013 Jones, fast photoresponses (τrise = 472 μs and τdecay = 894 μs), low dark current, and suppressed hysteresis.

A vertical CsPbBr3/ZnO heterojunction for photo-sensing lights from UV to green band

In this work, we have reported a vertical CsPbBr₃/ZnO heterojunction photodetector for photo-sensing lights from UV to visible band. The ZnO thin film is deposited on the c-sapphire substrate through a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique, and then the CsPbBr₃ thin film is synthesized on the as-prepared ZnO film layer by using a solution processing method. The as-prepared CsPbBr₃/ZnO heterostructure presents type-II energy band structure induced by the energy band offset effect, which can promote the separation and extraction efficiencies of the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Compared with the CsPbBr₃ based metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) structure photodetector, the heterojunction photodetector presents higher responsivity and detectivity of 630 µA/W and 7 × 10⁹ Jones. While compared with the ZnO based MSM structure photodetector, the heterojunction device reveals much faster response speeds of 61 µs (rise time) and 1.4 ms (decay time). These findings demonstrate that the CsPbBr₃/ZnO heterojunction photodetector is promising for constructing next generation perovskite based optoelectronic devices.