Topological insulators photodetectors: Preparation, advances and application challenges

In photoelectric device era, topological insulators (TIs) are considered very promising candidates due to their superior features, including remarkable properties, full components, and compatibility with traditional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor processing technologies. Indeed, TIs have been shown to display abundant unparalleled optoelectronic properties, including extremely wide spectral response, fast relaxations in the flexible nanoscale, instance special band-gap structures, and topological surface states (TSS) effect. TIs, combined with optical platforms such as gratings, resonators and optical waveguides, has inspired a variety of military and civilian applications. The photoelectric characteristics of TIs as well as their design and fabrication of derivative heterostructures are comprehensively reviewed, discussed and implemented. This review summarizes the developmental progress of TIs-based photodetectors as well as their working mechanisms, preparation methods, progress and performance indicators. Finally, the future development trend, challenges and important research directions are prospected, which provides a promising approach for the new concept and high performance photodetection applications of TIs.