Growth of Wafer-Scale Standing Layers of WS₂ for Self-Biased High-Speed UV-Visible-NIR Optoelectronic Devices

This work describes the wafer-scale standing growth of (002)-plane-oriented layers of WS₂ and their suitability for use in self-biased broad-band high-speed photodetection. The WS₂ layers are grown using large-scale sputtering, and the effects of the processing parameters such as the deposition temperature, deposition time, and sputtering power are studied. The structural, physical, chemical, optical, and electrical properties of the WS₂ samples are also investigated. On the basis of the broad-band light absorption and high-speed in-plane carrier transport characteristics of the WS₂ layers, a self-biased broad-band high-speed photodetector is fabricated by forming a type-II heterojunction. This WS₂/Si heterojunction is sensitive to ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared photons and shows an ultrafast photoresponse (1.1 μs) along with an excellent responsivity (4 mA/W) and a specific detectivity (∼1.5 × 10¹⁰ Jones). A comprehensive Mott-Schottky analysis is performed to evaluate the parameters of the device, such as the frequency-dependent flat-band potential and carrier concentration. Further, the photodetection parameters of the device, such as its linear dynamic range, rising time, and falling time, are evaluated to elucidate its spectral and transient characteristics. The device exhibits remarkably improved transient and spectral photodetection performances as compared to those of photodetectors based on atomically thin WS₂ and two-dimensional materials. These results suggest that the proposed method is feasible for the manipulation of vertically standing WS₂ layers that exhibit high in-plane carrier mobility and allow for high-performance broad-band photodetection and energy device applications.