Hydrogen Terminated Germanene for a Robust Self‐Powered Flexible Photoelectrochemical Photodetector

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 16; no. 23; pp. e2000283 - n/a
• Main Authors: Liu, Nana, Qiao, Hui, Xu, Kang, Xi, Yilian, Ren, Long, Cheng, Ningyan, Cui, Dandan, Qi, Xiang, Xu, Xun, Hao, Weichang, Dou, Shi Xue, Du, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2020
• Subjects: 2D materials; Carrier mobility; germanane; germanene; Graphene; Nanosheets; Nanotechnology; Optical properties; Photoelectric effect; Photoelectric emission; photoelectrochemical photodetectors; Photometers; Response time; Thickness; Two dimensional materials; photoelectrochemical photodetectors; germanane; germanene; 2D materials
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202000283

As a rising star in the family of graphene analogues, germanene shows great potential for electronic and optical device applications due to its unique structure and electronic properties. It is revealed that the hydrogen terminated germanene not only maintains a high carrier mobility similar to that of germanene, but also exhibits strong light–matter interaction with a direct band gap, exhibiting great potential for photoelectronics. In this work, few‐layer germanane (GeH) nanosheets with controllable thickness are successfully synthesized by a solution‐based exfoliation–centrifugation route. Instead of complicated microfabrication techniques, a robust photoelectrochemical (PEC)‐type photodetector, which can be extended to flexible device, is developed by simply using the GeH nanosheet film as an active electrode. The device exhibits an outstanding photocurrent density of 2.9 µA cm−2 with zero bias potential, excellent responsivity at around 22 µA W−1 under illumination with intensity ranging from 60 to 140 mW cm−2, as well as short response time (with rise and decay times, tr = 0.24 s and td = 0.74 s). This efficient strategy for a constructing GeH‐based PEC‐type photodetector suggests a path to promising high‐performance, self‐powered, flexible photodetectors, and it also paves the way to a practical application of germanene. A flexible, controllable, and robust photoelectrochemical (PEC)‐type photodetector based on hydrogen‐terminated germanene is demonstrated that exhibits a high photocurrent density of 2.9 µA cm−2 with zero bias potential, excellent responsivity as well as short response time. This efficient strategy suggests a path to promising high‐performance, self‐powered, flexible photodetectors, and it also paves the way to a practical application of germanene.