Tunneling Diode Based on WSe2 /SnS2 Heterostructure Incorporating High Detectivity and Responsivity.

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures based on atomically thin 2D materials have led to a new era in next-generation optoelectronics due to their tailored energy band alignments and ultrathin morphological features, especially in photodetectors. However, these photodetectors often show an inevitable compromise between photodetectivity and photoresponsivity with one high and the other low. Herein, a highly sensitive WSe2 /SnS2 photodiode is constructed on BN thin film by exfoliating each material and manually stacking them. The WSe2 /SnS2 vdW heterostructure shows ultralow dark currents resulting from the depletion region at the junction and high direct tunneling current when illuminated, which is confirmed by the energy band structures and electrical characteristics fitted with direct tunneling. Thus, the distinctive WSe2 /SnS2 vdW heterostructure exhibits both ultrahigh photodetectivity of 1.29 × 1013 Jones (Iph /Idark ratio of ≈106 ) and photoresponsivity of 244 A W-1 at a reverse bias under the illumination of 550 nm light (3.77 mW cm-2 ).