IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms12174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Photo-thermionic effect in vertical graphene heterostructures

Author

Listed:
  • M. Massicotte

    (ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

  • P. Schmidt

    (ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

  • F. Vialla

    (ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

  • K. Watanabe

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • T. Taniguchi

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • K. J. Tielrooij

    (ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

  • F. H. L. Koppens

    (ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    ICREA—Institució Catalana de Recerça i Estudis Avancats)

Abstract

Finding alternative optoelectronic mechanisms that overcome the limitations of conventional semiconductor devices is paramount for detecting and harvesting low-energy photons. A highly promising approach is to drive a current from the thermal energy added to the free-electron bath as a result of light absorption. Successful implementation of this strategy requires a broadband absorber where carriers interact among themselves more strongly than with phonons, as well as energy-selective contacts to extract the excess electronic heat. Here we show that graphene-WSe2-graphene heterostructure devices offer this possibility through the photo-thermionic effect: the absorbed photon energy in graphene is efficiently transferred to the electron bath leading to a thermalized hot carrier distribution. Carriers with energy higher than the Schottky barrier between graphene and WSe2 can be emitted over the barrier, thus creating photocurrent. We experimentally demonstrate that the photo-thermionic effect enables detection of sub-bandgap photons, while being size-scalable, electrically tunable, broadband and ultrafast.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Massicotte & P. Schmidt & F. Vialla & K. Watanabe & T. Taniguchi & K. J. Tielrooij & F. H. L. Koppens, 2016. "Photo-thermionic effect in vertical graphene heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12174
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12174
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms12174?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liang, Tao & Hu, Cong & Fu, Tong & Su, Shanhe & Chen, Jincan, 2022. "The maximum efficiency enhancement of a solar-driven graphene-anode thermionic converter realizing total photon reflection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PA).
    2. Han, Yuan & Zhang, Houcheng & Hu, Ziyang & Hou, Shujin, 2021. "An efficient hybrid system using a graphene-based cathode vacuum thermionic energy converter to harvest the waste heat from a molten hydroxide direct carbon fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    3. Shuo Dong & Samuel Beaulieu & Malte Selig & Philipp Rosenzweig & Dominik Christiansen & Tommaso Pincelli & Maciej Dendzik & Jonas D. Ziegler & Julian Maklar & R. Patrick Xian & Alexander Neef & Avaise, 2023. "Observation of ultrafast interfacial Meitner-Auger energy transfer in a Van der Waals heterostructure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.