2D semiconductors based on transition metal dichalcogenides are highly promising for ultrathin photodetectors due to their thickness in the nanometer range and their exceptional light absorption properties. To enable efficient separation of optically generated electron–hole pairs heterostructures have to be implemented, which are usually prepared by poorly controlled mechanical steps such as exfoliation, transfer and stacking processes that prevent industrial upscaling. Here, semitransparent photodetectors in the mm2 range based on MoS2/WS2 heterostructures are presented that are realized without any transfer step by a scalable metal-organic chemical vapor deposition process on a sapphire substrate in a continuous growth run. The heterostructure device exhibits a responsivity, which is enhanced by about 5–6 orders of magnitude with respect to reference devices based on either MoS2 or WS2 monolayers only. The large gain enhancement is attributed to efficient charge carrier separation at the MoS2/WS2 heterointerface combined with hole trapping, leading to an improved electron transport in the heterostructure under illumination.

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