High-speed and high-gain graphene photovoltaic phototransistor gated by a van der Waals heterojunction

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) material-based phototransistors offer a unique combination of optical sensing, signal amplification, and logic operation within a single device, yet fundamentally suffering from an inherent gain-speed trade-off. Here, we demonstrate a 2D photovoltaic phototransistor that overcomes this limitation using a MoS2/PtSe2 heterojunction to gate a graphene channel. The ultrafast photovoltaic effect in the heterojunction enables charge separation, yielding ultrahigh photoconductive gain (up to 10^8) in graphene channel via interfacial gating. Besides, the response time (below the instrumental resolution of 550 ns) is governed by carrier transit in graphene channel, enabling simultaneous high speed and high gain. Moreover, broadband photodetection from visible to near-infrared is enabled by the optical properties of the MoS2/PtSe2 heterojunction, with the detectivity exceeding 10^11 Jones. These results establish a new paradigm for high-performance 2D phototransistors by harnessing photovoltaic and photogating effects to overcome the classical gain-speed trade-off.