Liquid Phase Exfoliated Indium Selenide Based Highly Sensitive Photodetectors

Abstract

Layered semiconductors of the IIIA-VIA group have attracted considerable attention in (opto)electronic applications thanks to their atomically thin structures and their thickness-dependent optical and electronic properties, which promise ultrafast response and high sensitivity. In particular, 2D indium selenide (InSe) has emerged as a promising candidate for the realization of thin-film field effect transistors and phototransistors due to its high intrinsic mobility (>10(2) cm(2) V-1 s(-1)) and the direct optical transitions in an energy range suitable for visible and near-infrared light detection. A key requirement for the exploitation of large-scale (opto)electronic applications relies on the development of low-cost and industrially relevant 2D material production processes, such as liquid phase exfoliation, combined with the availability of high-throughput device fabrication methods. Here, a beta polymorph of indium selenide (beta-InSe) is exfoliated in isopropanol and spray-coated InSe-based photodetectors are demonstrated, exhibiting high responsivity to visible light (maximum value of 274 A W-1 under blue excitation 455 nm) and fast response time (15 ms). The devices show a gate-dependent conduction with an n-channel transistor behavior. Overall, this study establishes that liquid phase exfoliated beta-InSe is a valid candidate for printed high-performance photodetectors, which is critical for the development of industrial-scale 2D material-based optoelectronic devices.