Intrinsic Photoconductivity of few-layered ZrS 2 Phototransistors via Multiterminal Measurements
We report intrinsic photoconductivity studies on one of the least examined layered compounds, ZrS 2 .Few-atomic layer ZrS 2 field-effect transistors were fabricated on the Si/SiO 2 substrate and photoconductivity measurements were performed using both two- and four-terminal configurations under the illumination of 532 nm laser source. We measured photocurrent as a function of the incident optical power at several source-drain (bias) voltages. We observe a significantly large photoconductivity when measured in the multiterminal (four-terminal) configuration compared to that in the two-terminal configuration. For an incident optical power of 90 nW, the estimated photosensitivity and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) measured in two-terminal configuration are 0.5 A/W and 120%, respectively, under a bias voltage of 650 mV. Under the same conditions, the four-terminal measurements result in much higher values for both the photoresponsivity (R) and EQE to 6 A/W and 1400%, respectively. This significant improvement in photoresponsivity and EQE in the four-terminal configuration may have been influenced by the reduction of contact resistance at the metal-semiconductor interface, which greatly impacts the carrier mobility of low conducting materials. This suggests that photoconductivity measurements performed through the two-terminal configuration in previous studies on ZrS 2 and other 2D materials have severely underestimated the true intrinsic properties of transition metal dichalcogenides and their remarkable potential for optoelectronic applications.