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Van der Waals epitaxy of ultrathin crystalline PbTe nanosheets with high near-infrared photoelectric response

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Abstract

Lead telluride (PbTe) is one of the reliable candidates for infrared (IR) optoelectronics with optimum band-gap as well as excellent photoelectric properties. Great interests had been paid on the growth and device applications with PbTe for the development of high-performance IR photodetectors especially those working in the near-infrared regime. Although a great deal of effort had been made to prepare PbTe nanostructures for miniaturized detectors, it is difficult to synthesize high-quality two-dimensional (2D) PbTe crystals due to its rock-salt non-layered structure. Herein, a facile strategy for controllable synthesis of ultrathin crystalline PbTe nanosheets by van der Waals epitaxy is reported. With an optimized growth temperature, which determines the morphology transit from triangular pyramid islands to regular square 2D planars, PbTe nanosheets in lateral size of tens of microns with thickness down to ~ 7 nm are achieved. Meanwhile, ultrasensitive near-infrared detectors (NIRDs) based on the as-grown 2D PbTe nanosheets have been demonstrated with an ultrahigh responsivity exceeding 3,847 A/W at the wavelength of 1,550 nm under room temperature. Our approach demonstrates that 2D PbTe nanosheets have great latent capacity of developing high-performance miniaturized IR optoelectronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61875223, 61922082 and 61927813), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (No. 117111). The support from the Vacuum Interconnected Nanotech Workstation (Nano-X) of Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences is also acknowledged.

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Author notes

  1. Xinxin Zhao and Qing Yin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xinxin Zhao, Jie Yang & Zhuo Dong

  2. Nano Science and Technology Institute, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Qing Yin

  3. Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications, i-Lab, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Xinxin Zhao, Qing Yin, Qiang Yu, Jie Yang, Zhuo Dong & Kai Zhang

  4. School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Hao Huang & Lei Liao

  5. The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Osaka, 567-0047, Japan

    Bo Liu

  6. College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China

    Zhenjiang Shen

  7. School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Benpeng Zhu

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  1. Xinxin Zhao
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  11. Kai Zhang
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Correspondence to Kai Zhang.

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Zhao, X., Yin, Q., Huang, H. et al. Van der Waals epitaxy of ultrathin crystalline PbTe nanosheets with high near-infrared photoelectric response. Nano Res. 14, 1955–1960 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2834-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2834-5

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