Acousto-Drag Photovoltaic Effect by Piezoelectric Integration of Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

Abstract

Light-to-electricity conversion is crucial for energy harvesting and photodetection, requiring efficient electron–hole pair separation to prevent recombination. Traditional junction-based mechanisms using built-in electric fields fail in nonbarrier regions. Homogeneous material harvesting under a photovoltaic effect is appealing but is only realized in noncentrosymmetric systems via a bulk photovoltaic effect. Here we report the realization of a photovoltaic effect by employing surface acoustic waves (SAWs) to generate zero-bias photocurrent in the conventional layered semiconductor MoSe2. SAWs induce periodic modulation to electronic bands and drag the photoexcited pairs toward the traveling direction. The photocurrent is extracted from a local barrier. The separation of generation and extraction processes suppresses recombination and yields a large nonlocal photoresponse. We distinguish the acousto-electric drag and electron–hole pair separation effect by fabricating devices of different configurations. The acousto-drag photovoltaic effect, enabled by piezoelectric integration, offers an efficient light-to-electricity conversion method, independent of semiconductor crystal symmetry.