Bias- and Gate-Tunable Gas Sensor Response Originating from Modulation in the Schottky Barrier Height of a Graphene/MoS 2 van der Waals Heterojunction

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 10; no. 44; pp. 38387 - 38393
• Main Authors: Tabata, Hiroshi, Sato, Yuta, Oi, Kouhei, Kubo, Osamu, Katayama, Mitsuhiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 07.11.2018
• Subjects: thermionic emission; MoS2; heterojunction; gas sensor; graphene; Schottky barrier; metal−semiconductor−metal diode
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b14667

We report on the gas-sensing characteristics of a van der Waals heterojunction consisting of graphene and a MoS flake. To extract the response actually originating from the heterojunction area, the other gas-sensitive parts were passivated by gas barrier layers. The graphene/MoS heterojunction device demonstrated a significant change in resistance, by a factor of greater than 10 , upon exposure to 1 ppm NO under a reverse-bias condition, which was revealed to be a direct reflection of the modulation of the Schottky barrier height at the graphene/MoS interface. The magnitude of the response demonstrated strong dependences on the bias and back-gate voltages. The response further increased with increasing reverse bias. Conversely, it dramatically decreased when measured at a large forward bias or a large positive back-gate voltage. These behaviors were analyzed using a metal-semiconductor-metal diode model consisting of graphene/MoS and counter Ti/MoS Schottky diodes.