Study of an MoS₂ phototransistor using a compact numerical method enabling detailed analysis of 2D material phototransistors

Abstract

Research on two-dimensional material-based phototransistors has recently become a topic of great interest. However, the high number of design features, which impact the performance of these devices, and the multi-physical nature of the device operation make the accurate analysis of these devices a challenge. Here, we present a simple yet effective numerical framework to overcome this challenge. The one-dimensional framework is constructed on the drift-diffusion equations, Poisson’s equation, and wave propagation in multi-layered medium formalism. We apply this framework to study phototransistors made from monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) placed on top of a back-gated silicon-oxide-coated silicon substrate. Numerical results, which show good agreement with the experimental results found in the literature, emphasize the necessity of including the inhomogeneous background for accurately calculating device metrics such as quantum efficiency and bandwidth. For the first time in literature, we calculate the phase noise of these phototransistors, which is a crucial performance metric for many applications where precise timing and synchronization are critical. We determine that applying a low drain-to-source voltage is the key requirement for low phase noise.