High-performance 2D WS2 photodetector enhanced by charge-transfer doping through NH3 annealing

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are potential candidates towards the next-generation photodetector, owing to their tunable energy bandgap and strong light–matter interaction. However, the low charge-carrier mobility and insufficient quantum efficiency of TMDs-based devices restrain their optoelectronic performances. Therefore, an effective and facile doping method needs to be developed for overcoming their poor optoelectronics properties. Here, we demonstrate a controllable nondegenerate n-doping technique for 2D TMDs materials by annealing under NH3 flow. The on/off current ratio and field-effect mobility of the device after annealing treatment increases about 2 orders of magnitude and 23 times, respectively. We attribute this remarkable doping effect to the physical adsorption and chemical adsorption of NH3 as well as the associated formation of isolated sulfur vacancies, which is dynamically activated during the annealing treatment, and further verified by the atomic-scale characterization and density functional theory calculations. The annealing temperature and time present a controllable modulation on the electron doping levels of the WS2 channel. The fabricated WS2 photodetector can operate in a broad range of visible light at room temperature. At 532 nm wavelength, the responsivity of 2.97 A/W, external quantum efficiency of 699% and specific detectivity of over 1010 Jones indicate its great potential in sensitive and power-efficient photodetectors. Our results provide an effective method to realize controllable n-doping of 2D materials, aiming for fabricating high-performance 2D photodetectors.