Strain modulation on graphene/ZnO nanowire mixed- dimensional van der Waals heterostructure for high-performance photosensor

The mixed-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure is a promising building block for strained electronics and optoelectronics because it avoids the bond fracture and atomic reconstruction under strain. We propose a novel mixed-dimensional vdW heterostructure between two-dimensional graphene and a one-dimensional ZnO nanowire for high-performance photosensing. By utilizing the piezoelectric properties of ZnO, strain modulation was accomplished in the mixed-dimensional vdW heterostructure to optimize the device per­formance. By combining the ultrahigh electrons transfer speed in graphene and the extremely long life time of holes in ZnO, an outstanding responsivity of 1.87 × 10⁵ A/W was achieved. Under a tensile strain of only 0.44% on the ZnO nanowire, the responsivity was enhanced by 26%. A competitive model was proposed, in which the performance enhancement is due to the efficient promotion of the injection of photogenerated electrons from the ZnO into the graphene caused by the strain-induced positive piezopotential. Our study provides a strain-engineering strategy for controlling the behavior of the photocarriers in the mixed-dimensional vdW heterostructure, which can be also applied to other similar systems in the future.