The Acoustophotoelectric Effect: Efficient Phonon-Photon-Electron Coupling in Zero-Voltage-Biased 2D SnS2 for Broad-Band Photodetection

Two-dimensional (2D) layered metal dichalcogenides constitute a promising class of materials for photodetector applications due to their excellent optoelectronic properties. The most common photodetectors, which work on the principle of photoconductive or photovoltaic effects, however, require either the application of external voltage biases or built-in electric fields, which makes it challenging to simultaneously achieve high responsivities across broad-band wavelength excitation─especially beyond the material’s nominal band gap─while producing low dark currents. In this work, we report the discovery of an intricate phonon-photon-electron coupling─which we term the acoustophotoelectric effect─in SnS2 that facilitates efficient photodetection through the application of 100 MHz order propagating surface acoustic waves (SAWs). This effect not only reduces the band gap of SnS2 but also provides the requisite momentum for indirect band gap transition of the photoexcited charge carriers, to enable broad-band photodetection beyond the visible light range, while maintaining pA-order dark currents─ without the need for any external voltage bias. More specifically, we show in the infrared excitation range that it is possible to achieve up to 8 orders of magnitude improvement in the material’s photoresponsivity compared to that previously reported for SnS2-based photodetectors, in addition to exhibiting superior performance compared to most other 2D materials reported to date for photodetection.