Observation of ballistic avalanche phenomena in nanoscale vertical InSe/BP heterostructures

Abstract

Initiating impact ionization of avalanche breakdown essentially requires applying a high electric field in a long active region, hampering carrier-multiplication with high gain, low bias and superior noise performance. Here we report the observation of ballistic avalanche phenomena in sub-MFP scaled vertical indium selenide (InSe)/black phosphorus (BP) heterostructures. The heterojunction is engineered to avalanche photodetectors (APD) and impact ionization transistors, demonstrating ultra-sensitive mid-IR light detection (4 μm wavelength) and ultra-steep subthreshold swing, respectively. These devices show an extremely low avalanche threshold (<1 volt), excellent low noise figures and distinctive density spectral shape. Further transport measurement evidences the breakdown originals from a ballistic avalanche phenomenon, where the sub-MFP BP channel enables both electrons and holes to impact-ionize the lattice and abruptly amplify the current without scattering from the obstacles in a deterministic nature. Our results shed light on the development of advanced photodetectors and efficiently facilitating carriers on the nanoscale.

To appear on Nature Nanotechnology; 41 pages, 4 figures, 15 supplementary figures

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Van der Waals heterostructures for high-performance device applications: challenges and opportunities
• Programmable black phosphorus image sensor for broadband optoelectronic edge computing
• Nanomaterials for Quantum Information Science and Engineering
• The optical properties of few-layer InSe
• Kinetics-Limited Two-Step Growth of van der Waals Puckered Honeycomb Sb Monolayer
• Growth and applications of two-dimensional single crystals
• Indium selenides for next-generation low-power computing devices
• Experimental observation of anomalous supralinear response of single-photon detectors
• The Influence of Dimensionality on the Charge Density Wave Transition and Its Application on Mid-infrared Photodetection