Gate-tunable rectification and photoresponse in a MoTe2/SnS2 van der Waals heterostructure based P-N diode

The p-n junction, one of the prominent electrical components capable of being utilized in electronics and optoelectronics, has attracted renewed interest due to recent research in two-dimensional (2D) materials. In this work, we constructed a heterostructure p-n diode based on MoTe2 and SnS2. Sweeping the back-gate voltage (V-bg) effectively results in a high rectification ratio of 2.79 x 10(5) at V-bg = +10 V and the lowest ideality factor (eta) of about 1.25 was achievedwhen V-bg = -30 V. The interlayer electron-hole recombination is responsible for the variation in rectification behavior. This photodiode exhibits effective photodetection capabilities and promising merit statistics. The maximum change in photocurrent (I-ph) is measured to be about 90 nA at V-ds = 0.9 V, and the device exhibited a high responsivity (R) of 5.8 x 10(4) mA W-1, while the maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) and detectivity are calculated to be about 3.27 x 10(4) (%) and 2.47 x 10(10) Jones for the device, respectively, when illuminated with 220 nm wavelength incident light at a power intensity of 11 mW cm(-2). The average rise/fall times for the 220 nm wavelength at V-ds = 0.9 V are observed to be 0.29 s/0.38 s, respectively. We examined the photoresponse of the device as a function of time at different wavelengths (lambda = 970-220 nm) of the incident light and at different power intensities (P = 11-44 mW cm(-2)) of the incident light. The maximum values of V-oc = 0.32 V and I-sc = -0.40 nA were achieved at P = 44 mW cm(-2). The p-MoTe2/n-SnS2-based device has excellent rectifying and optoelectronic properties.