Electron-hole transport and photovoltaic effect in gated MoS2 Schottky junctions

Abstract

Semiconducting molybdenum disulfphide has emerged as an attractive material for novel nanoscale optoelectronic devices due to its reduced dimensionality and large direct bandgap. Since optoelectronic devices require electron-hole generation/recombination, it is important to be able to fabricate ambipolar transistors to investigate charge transport both in the conduction band and in the valence band. Although n-type transistor operation for single-layer and few-layer MoS₂ with gold source and drain contacts was recently demonstrated, transport in the valence band has been elusive for solid-state devices. Here we show that a multi-layer MoS₂ channel can be hole-doped by palladium contacts, yielding MoS₂ p-type transistors. When two different materials are used for the source and drain contacts, for example hole-doping Pd and electron-doping Au, the Schottky junctions formed at the MoS₂ contacts produce a clear photovoltaic effect.