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P-N junction

P-N junction

A p-n junction is formed when p-type and n-type semiconductor materials are joined together. At the interface of the p-n junction, holes from the p-side and electrons from the n-side begin to diffuse into the opposite sides due to the concentration gradient. This diffusion of carriers leads to a region around the junction where there are no free charge carriers, known as the depletion region. The charge density within the depletion region for the n-side and p-side can be described by the...

Biasing of P-N Junction

Biasing of P-N Junction

The operation of a p-n junction diode involves various biasing conditions, including forward bias, reverse bias, and equilibrium.
In equilibrium, no external voltage is applied across the p-n junction. The depletion region is formed at the junction interface due to the diffusion of carriers, which leaves behind charged dopants, acceptors on the p-side, and donors on the n-side. These immobile charges create an electric field that prevents further diffusion of carriers. The related energy band...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions

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A Gate-Tunable Thermal Persistent Photocurrent Device for In-Sensor Spiking Neural Networks.

Xiao Li¹, Liutianyi Zhang^2,3,4, Yifei Zhang^2,3

¹State Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (LoFE), School of Flexible Electronics (Future Technologies) & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), Nanjing 211816, China.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

|April 6, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Persistent photocurrent in van der Waals heterostructures is driven by self-heating, not just traps. This thermal mechanism in MoS2/black phosphorus (BP) p-n junctions enables efficient neuromorphic vision applications.

Keywords:

MoS2/BP heterojunction in-sensor spiking neural networks persistent photocurrent recombination-induced self-heating thermoelectric and bolometric effects

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Device Physics

Background:

Persistent photocurrent is common in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures.
Its microscopic origin is often attributed to trap-assisted photogating but remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To clarify the mechanism of persistent photocurrent in a gate-tunable MoS2/black phosphorus (BP) p-n heterojunction.
To investigate the role of self-heating versus trap-assisted photogating.

Main Methods:

Combined DC and lock-in measurements with time-resolved decay.
Simultaneous measurement of general (DC) and net photocurrent.
Tuning the heterostructure between p-n and n-n configurations using a back gate.
Application of a leaky integrate-and-fire model for neuromorphic network demonstration.

Main Results:

DC photocurrent exhibits long decay lifetimes (τ > 100s) dependent on gate voltage (Vg) and bias, inconsistent with trap-only models.
Long-lived response is dominated by self-heating from majority-carrier recombination in forward-biased p-n junctions, generating thermoelectric and bolometric currents.
Back gate effectively switches the thermal channel on/off by tuning the heterostructure configuration.

Conclusions:

Persistent photocurrent in MoS2/BP heterostructures is primarily caused by recombination-induced self-heating, not trap-assisted photogating.
This thermal mechanism can be controlled by gate voltage, enabling applications in neuromorphic computing.
Demonstrated an in-sensor spiking neural network with high accuracy (91.95%) on MNIST using thermally engineered devices.