A review on recent advancements in the growth of MoS2 based flexible photodetectors

In modern technologies, flexible and wearable optoelectronics are becoming integral for everyday intelligence, medical, imaging chemical analysis and telecommunications, etc. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has gained enormous attention in flexible optoelectronics devices as MoS2 exhibits a tunable optical energy band gap with decent absorption spectra in UV to NIR region, superior mechanical flexibility, and electrical properties. Furthermore, the heterostructures of MoS2 having varying thickness with conventional bulk semiconductors and optically active Quantum dots (QDs) has emerged as the alternative kinds of hybrid heterojunctions for the fabrication of portable and cost-effective flexible photodetectors with ultrafast and broad photoresponse because of the enrichment of the properties of hybrid dimensional semiconducting materials in a single heterostructure. The current researchers show the features of MoS2 based flexible photodetectors, various hybrid dimensional heterostructures, and the prospectus and novel approaches to enhance the photodetection performance. Various flexible photodetectors have been developed, including pristine MoS2-based flexible photodetectors along with MoS2 heterostructures in combination with 0D-Quantum dots, 1D-nanowires (NWs), layered 2D materials (graphene & TMDs) and 3-D bulk semiconductors for flexible photodetection applications enriched with novel features to meet the better photoresponse. Various effective strategies to enhance the performance of MoS2-based flexible photodetectors, including chemical doping, decoration with noble metal nanomaterials, and insertion of an efficient buffer layer, have been well summarized. This review may be helpful in understanding various aspects of flexible photodetectors and in developing the futuristic era of the novel MoS2-based flexible photodetectors.