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Self-powered tunable photodetection via flexoelectric engineering of single-phase 2H—MoS2
Journal of Materiomics 2025, 11(6)
Published: 18 June 2025
Abstract Collect

Two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has shown considerable potential for photodetection, yet existing MoS2-based photodetectors require either external voltage bias or complex heterojunctions. In this work, we present a new device concept based on flexoelectric engineering of bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) of 2H—MoS2, simplifying the device configuration considerably while enhancing its self-powered photodetection performance. By introducing a strain gradient in the suspended 2H—MoS2, we break its inversion symmetry, resulting in BPVE in the otherwise centrosymmetric system. The significant flexoelectric polarization induced also facilitates efficient photocarrier separation, leading to a 41-fold enhancement in short-circuit photocurrent under a strain gradient of 0.95. Furthermore, the flexoelectric-engineered photodetector can be dynamically tuned via air pressure, enabling multilevel photoconductance and achieving a responsivity of 191 mA/W. This performance surpasses existing self-powered MoS2-based photodetectors reported in literature, offering a strategy for enhanced photodetection.

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