A new photodetector structure based on graphene nanomeshes: an ab initio study

Recent experiments suggest graphene-based materials as candidates in future electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we propose to investigate new photodetectors based on graphene nanomeshes (GNMs). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to gain insight into electronic and optical characteristics of various GNM structures. To investigate the device-level properties of GNMs, their current-voltage characteristics are explored by DFT-based tight-binding (DFTB) in combination with non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) methods. Band structure analysis shows that GNMs have both metallic and semiconducting properties depending on the arrangements of perforations. Also, absorption spectrum analysis indicates attractive infrared peaks for GNMs with semiconducting characteristics, making them better photodetectors than graphene nanoribbon (GNR)-based alternatives. The results suggest that GNMs can be potentially used in mid-infrared detectors with specific detectivity values that are 100-fold that of graphene-based devices and 1000-fold that of GNR-based devices. Hence, the special properties of graphene combined with the quantum feathers of the perforation makes it suitable for optical devices.