Chiral metal-organic framework based spin-polarized flexible photodetector with ultrahigh sensitivity

Spin-optoelectronics plays a key role in developing next-generation technologies with potential applications covering from pharmaceutical synthesis and quantum computing to optical communication. One of the most feasible ways to achieve high-performance spin optoelectronic devices is based on chiral materials. Chiral metal-organic frameworks (CMOFs), an emerging class of chiral hybrid materials, have sparked interest due to their structural variety and flexibility, order nanopores, cost-effectiveness, and unique chirality features. Herein, we have developed CMOF [Sr (9,10-adc) (DMAc)2]n based on achiral building blocks [(9,10-adc)] to detect circularly polarized light (CPL) with ultrahigh sensitivity. Their application in spin-polarized flexible detectors gives a detectivity (D∗) as high as 1.83 × 1012 jones, superior to all reported heterochiral MOF-based detectors. Meanwhile, the anisotropy factor (gIph) is up to 0.38 for CPL detection. The maximum photoresponsivity (Rph) and photogain (η) values of CMOFs reach up to 6.0 × 105 (A/W) and 1.8 × 106, respectively, which are also the record values among reported chiral MOFs. Additionally, the photodetector is mechanically flexible and durable, manifesting an important feature for wearable devices. Therefore, our study shown here is significant and timely to open a route for advancing spin-optoelectronics based on CMOF.