Observation of the photovoltaic effect in a van der Waals heterostructure

Shaochun Zhang; Mina Maruyama; Susumu Okada; Mengsong Xue; Kenji Watanabe; Takashi Taniguchi; Kazuki Hashimoto; Yasumitsu Miyata; Ruben Canton-Vitoria; Ryo Kitaura

doi:10.1039/D2NR06616E

Observation of the photovoltaic effect in a van der Waals heterostructure†

Shaochun Zhang,^a Mina Maruyama,^b Susumu Okada,^b Mengsong Xue,^a Kenji Watanabe,

^d Takashi Taniguchi,^c Kazuki Hashimoto,^e Yasumitsu Miyata,^e Ruben Canton-Vitoria^a and Ryo Kitaura

*^ac

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* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan
E-mail: KITAURA.Ryo@nims.go.jp, r.kitaura@nagoya-u.jp

^b Department of Physics, Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba 305-8571, Japan

^c International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan

^d Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan

^e Department of Physics, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan

Abstract

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, which can be assembled with various two-dimensional materials, provide a versatile platform for exploring emergent phenomena. Here, we report an observation of the photovoltaic effect in a WS₂/MoS₂ vdW heterostructure. Light excitation of WS₂/MoS₂ at a wavelength of 633 nm yields a photocurrent without applying bias voltages, and the excitation power dependence of the photocurrent shows characteristic crossover from a linear to square root dependence. Photocurrent mapping has clearly shown that the observed photovoltaic effect arises from the WS₂/MoS₂ region, not from Schottky junctions at electrode contacts. Kelvin probe microscopy observations show no slope in the electrostatic potential, excluding the possibility that the photocurrent originates from an unintentionally formed built-in potential.

Nanoscale

Observation of the photovoltaic effect in a van der Waals heterostructure†

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Observation of the photovoltaic effect in a van der Waals heterostructure

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