Multifunctional van der Waals Broken-Gap Heterojunction

The finite energy band-offset that appears between band structures of employed materials in a broken-gap heterojunction exhibits several interesting phenomena. Here, by employing a black phosphorus (BP)/rhenium disulfide (ReS2) heterojunction, the tunability of the BP work function (Phi(BP)) with variation in flake thickness is exploited in order to demonstrate that a BP-based broken-gap heterojunction can manifest diverse current-transport characteristics such as gate tunable rectifying p-n junction diodes, Esaki diodes, backward-rectifying diodes, and nonrectifying devices as a consequence of diverse band-bending at the heterojunction. Diversity in band-bending near heterojunction is attributed to change in the Fermi level difference (Delta) between BP and ReS2 sides as a consequence of Phi(BP) modulation. No change in the current transport characteristics in several devices with fixed Delta also provides further evidence that current-transport is substantially impacted by band-bending at the heterojunction. Optoelectronic experiments on the Esaki diode and the p-n junction diode provide experimental evidence of band-bending diversity. Additionally, the p(+)-n-p junction comprising BP (38 nm)/ReS2/BP(5.8 nm) demonstrates multifunctionality of binary and ternary inverters as well as exhibiting the behavior of a bipolar junction transistor with common-emitter current gain up to 50.