Semiconducting molybdenum disulfphide has emerged as an attractive material for novel nanoscale optoelectronic devices due to its reduced dimensionality and large direct bandgap. Since optoelectronic devices require electron-hole generation/recombination, it is important to be able to fabricate ambipolar transistors to investigate charge transport both in the conduction band and in the valence band. Although n-type transistor operation for single-layer and few-layer MoS2 with gold source and drain contacts was recently demonstrated, transport in the valence band has been elusive for solid-state devices. Here we show that a multi-layer MoS2 channel can be hole-doped by palladium contacts, yielding MoS2
p-type transistors. When two different materials are used for the source and drain contacts, for example hole-doping Pd and electron-doping Au, the Schottky junctions formed at the MoS2 contacts produce a clear photovoltaic effect.
Photovoltaics possess significant potential due to the abundance of solar power incident on earth; however, they can only generate electricity during daylight hours. In order to produce electrical power after the sun has set, we consider an alternative photovoltaic concept that uses the earth as a heat source and the night sky as a heat sink, resulting in a "nighttime photovoltaic cell" that employs thermoradiative photovoltaics and concepts from the advancing field of radiative cooling. In this Perspective, we discuss the principles of thermoradiative photovoltaics, the theoretical limits of applying this concept to coupling with deep space, the potential of advanced radiative cooling techniques to enhance their performance, and a discussion of the practical limits, scalability, and integrability of this nighttime photovoltaic concept.
The authors made an error in the Discussion section of this paper. "We estimate that the maximum electrical power that can be extracted from the device is about 2.5% of the laser power incident on the MoS 2 region between the electrodes. " should read: "We estimate that the maximum electrical power that can be extracted from the device is about 1.25% of the laser power incident on the MoS 2 region between the electrodes. "
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