Large Lateral Photovoltaic Effect in MoS(2)/GaAs Heterojunction

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) nanoscaled films are deposited on GaAs substrates via magnetron sputtering technique, and MoS(2)/GaAs heterojunctions are fabricated. The lateral photovoltaic effect (LPE) of the fabricated MoS(2)/GaAs heterojunctions is investigated. The results show that a large LPE can be obtained in the MoS(2)/n-GaAs heterojunction. The LPE exhibits a linear dependence on the position of the laser illumination and the considerably high sensitivity of 416.4 mV mm(−) (1). This sensitivity is much larger than the values in other reported MoS(2)-based devices. Comparatively, the LPE in the MoS(2)/p-GaAs heterojunction is much weaker. The mechanisms to the LPE are unveiled by constructing the energy-band alignment of the MoS(2)/GaAs heterojunctions. The excellent LPE characteristics make MoS(2) films combined with GaAs semiconductors promising candidates for the application of high-performance position-sensitive detectors. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-017-2334-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.