IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59211-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sub-pA dark current infrared photodetection enabled by polarized water-intercalated heterojunctions

Author

Listed:
  • Chang Liu

    (Hunan University
    Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Lin Tang

    (Hunan University)

  • Yawei Lv

    (Hunan University)

  • Long Chen

    (Hunan University)

  • Yilu Qin

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Sen Zhang

    (Hunan University)

  • Shihao Zhao

    (Hunan University)

  • Shuimei Ding

    (Hunan University)

  • Xin Zhang

    (Hunan University)

  • Pan Xu

    (Hunan University)

  • Chao Ma

    (Hunan University)

  • Xingqiang Liu

    (Hunan University)

  • Fang Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Peng Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Xudong Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yuan Liu

    (Hunan University)

  • En-Ge Wang

    (Peking University)

  • Lei Liao

    (Hunan University)

  • Xuming Zou

    (Hunan University)

Abstract

Barrier detectors such as nBn and pBp architectures (formed by a n- or p-type contact layer, a barrier layer and a n- or p-type absorber) aim to block one carrier type while allowing the other to pass, but require complex hetero-integration and precise band engineering. Here, we propose an ultra-thin polar barrier strategy using a 0.75 nm water-intercalated WSe2/H2O/PdSe2 heterostructure. The confined water layer forms a clean, well-ordered interface and further generates a precisely oriented polarization field that depletes electrons in WSe2, significantly suppressing dark current to sub-pA levels across all biases, while enabling efficient tunneling of photogenerated holes. The device shows broadband photoresponse from the ultraviolet to mid-wave infrared (MWIR), with a room-temperature average detectivity exceeding 10¹⁰ cm Hz¹/² W⁻¹ in the MWIR. It also features ultrafast response (~3 μs), polarization light sensitivity, and two-year stability. Our work establishes a platform for high-performance infrared photodetection via van der Waals gap engineering.

Suggested Citation

  • Chang Liu & Lin Tang & Yawei Lv & Long Chen & Yilu Qin & Sen Zhang & Shihao Zhao & Shuimei Ding & Xin Zhang & Pan Xu & Chao Ma & Xingqiang Liu & Fang Wang & Peng Wang & Xudong Wang & Yuan Liu & En-Ge , 2025. "Sub-pA dark current infrared photodetection enabled by polarized water-intercalated heterojunctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59211-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59211-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59211-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59211-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiayang Jiang & Xuming Zou & Yawei Lv & Yuan Liu & Weiting Xu & Quanyang Tao & Yang Chai & Lei Liao, 2020. "Rational design of Al2O3/2D perovskite heterostructure dielectric for high performance MoS2 phototransistors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Yuan Liu & Yu Huang & Xiangfeng Duan, 2019. "Van der Waals integration before and beyond two-dimensional materials," Nature, Nature, vol. 567(7748), pages 323-333, March.
    3. A. K. Geim & I. V. Grigorieva, 2013. "Van der Waals heterostructures," Nature, Nature, vol. 499(7459), pages 419-425, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sangyong Park & Dongyoung Lee & Juncheol Kang & Hojin Choi & Jin-Hong Park, 2023. "Laterally gated ferroelectric field effect transistor (LG-FeFET) using α-In2Se3 for stacked in-memory computing array," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Lutao Li & Junjie Yao & Juntong Zhu & Yuan Chen & Chen Wang & Zhicheng Zhou & Guoxiang Zhao & Sihan Zhang & Ruonan Wang & Jiating Li & Xiangyi Wang & Zheng Lu & Lingbo Xiao & Qiang Zhang & Guifu Zou, 2023. "Colloid driven low supersaturation crystallization for atomically thin Bismuth halide perovskite," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Pei-Yu Huang & Bi-Yi Jiang & Hong-Ji Chen & Jia-Yi Xu & Kang Wang & Cheng-Yi Zhu & Xin-Yan Hu & Dong Li & Liang Zhen & Fei-Chi Zhou & Jing-Kai Qin & Cheng-Yan Xu, 2023. "Neuro-inspired optical sensor array for high-accuracy static image recognition and dynamic trace extraction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Singh, Deobrat & Khossossi, Nabil & Lizárraga, Raquel & Sonvane, Yogesh, 2024. "Theoretical prediction of a high-performance two-dimensional type-II MoSi2N4/As vdW heterostructure for photovoltaic solar cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PC).
    5. Pandey, Mayank & Deshmukh, Kalim & Raman, Akhila & Asok, Aparna & Appukuttan, Saritha & Suman, G.R., 2024. "Prospects of MXene and graphene for energy storage and conversion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    6. Benjamin Carey & Nils Kolja Wessling & Paul Steeger & Robert Schmidt & Steffen Michaelis de Vasconcellos & Rudolf Bratschitsch & Ashish Arora, 2024. "Giant Faraday rotation in atomically thin semiconductors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Zhixin Yao & Huifeng Tian & U. Sasaki & Huacong Sun & Jingyi Hu & Guodong Xue & Ye Seul Jung & Ruijie Li & Zhenjiang Li & PeiChi Liao & Yihan Wang & Lina Yang Zhang & Ge Yin & Xuanyu Zhang & Yijie Luo, 2025. "Transferrable, wet-chemistry-derived high-k amorphous metal oxide dielectrics for two-dimensional electronic devices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Eli Gerber & Steven B. Torrisi & Sara Shabani & Eric Seewald & Jordan Pack & Jennifer E. Hoffman & Cory R. Dean & Abhay N. Pasupathy & Eun-Ah Kim, 2023. "High-throughput ab initio design of atomic interfaces using InterMatch," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    9. Yu Ji & Guang-Ping Hao & Yong-Tao Tan & Wenqi Xiong & Yu Liu & Wenzhe Zhou & Dai-Ming Tang & Renzhi Ma & Shengjun Yuan & Takayoshi Sasaki & Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo & Andre K. Geim & Pengzhan Sun, 2024. "High proton conductivity through angstrom-porous titania," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    10. Bohayra Mortazavi & Timon Rabczuk, 2018. "Boron Monochalcogenides; Stable and Strong Two-Dimensional Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-10, June.
    11. Yeonghun Lee & Yaoqiao Hu & Xiuyao Lang & Dongwook Kim & Kejun Li & Yuan Ping & Kai-Mei C. Fu & Kyeongjae Cho, 2022. "Spin-defect qubits in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides operating at telecom wavelengths," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Jing Pan & Yiming Wu & Xiujuan Zhang & Jinhui Chen & Jinwen Wang & Shuiling Cheng & Xiaofeng Wu & Xiaohong Zhang & Jiansheng Jie, 2022. "Anisotropic charge trapping in phototransistors unlocks ultrasensitive polarimetry for bionic navigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Xinrui Yang & Lu Han & Hongkai Ning & Shaoqing Xu & Bo Hao & Yi-Chi Li & Taotao Li & Yuan Gao & Shengjun Yan & Yueying Li & Chenyi Gu & Weisheng Li & Zhengbin Gu & Yingzhuo Lun & Yi Shi & Jian Zhou & , 2024. "Ultralow-pressure-driven polarization switching in ferroelectric membranes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Yuxiang Gao & Fenglin Deng & Ri He & Zhicheng Zhong, 2025. "Spontaneous curvature in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Nikhil Mathur & Arunabh Mukherjee & Xingyu Gao & Jialun Luo & Brendan A. McCullian & Tongcang Li & A. Nick Vamivakas & Gregory D. Fuchs, 2022. "Excited-state spin-resonance spectroscopy of V $${}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ B − defect centers in hexagonal boron nitride," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    16. Md Gius Uddin & Susobhan Das & Abde Mayeen Shafi & Lei Wang & Xiaoqi Cui & Fedor Nigmatulin & Faisal Ahmed & Andreas C. Liapis & Weiwei Cai & Zongyin Yang & Harri Lipsanen & Tawfique Hasan & Hoon Hahn, 2024. "Broadband miniaturized spectrometers with a van der Waals tunnel diode," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    17. Nathan Ronceray & Massimo Spina & Vanessa Hui Yin Chou & Chwee Teck Lim & Andre K. Geim & Slaven Garaj, 2024. "Elastocapillarity-driven 2D nano-switches enable zeptoliter-scale liquid encapsulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Guanghui Cheng & Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman & Zhiping He & Andres Llacsahuanga Allcca & Avinash Rustagi & Kirstine Aggerbeck Stampe & Yanglin Zhu & Shaohua Yan & Shangjie Tian & Zhiqiang Mao & Hechang , 2022. "Emergence of electric-field-tunable interfacial ferromagnetism in 2D antiferromagnet heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    19. Wei Liu & Viktor Ivády & Zhi-Peng Li & Yuan-Ze Yang & Shang Yu & Yu Meng & Zhao-An Wang & Nai-Jie Guo & Fei-Fei Yan & Qiang Li & Jun-Feng Wang & Jin-Shi Xu & Xiao Liu & Zong-Quan Zhou & Yang Dong & Xi, 2022. "Coherent dynamics of multi-spin V $${}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ B − center in hexagonal boron nitride," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. Lei Zhou & Xiang Ni & Zerui Wang & Enrico M. Renzi & Junbo Xu & Zhou Zhou & Yu Yin & Yanzhen Yin & Renkang Song & Zhichen Zhao & Ke Yu & Di Huang & Zhanshan Wang & Xinbin Cheng & Andrea Alù & Tao Jian, 2025. "Engineering shear polaritons in 2D twisted heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59211-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.