216 IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 39, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2018
Graphene–Silicon-Based High-Sensitivity and
Broadband Phototransistor
Aliakbar Hekmatikia and Yaser Abdi
Abstract — Graphene–silicon vertical junction is utilized
here for fabrication of high-responsivity and broadband
phototransistor. Graphene–silicon as a Schottky junction
plays the role of collector–base junction in a bipolar junc-
tion phototransistor. We propose graphene–silicon-based
phototransistor as a promising candidate for fabrication
of high-gain photodetector with responsivity as high as
11 A/W. Gain and ON/OFF ratio of our fabricated device reach
up to 18 and 100, respectively. Our results show that the
graphene–silicon-based phototransistor is sensitive to a
broad range of incident light from visible to IR spectrum.
Our results open up a way to fabricate highly sensitive
photodetectors suitable for silicon integrated electronics.
Index Terms — Phototransistor, bipolar junction,
graphene, Si, Schottky junction.
I. I NTRODUCTION
G RAPHENE is a promising candidate for broadband
photo-detection due to its wide range light absorption
capability from ultra violet to infra-red range [1], [2]. Despite
having a single atomic layer thick, graphene absorbs ∼2.3% of
light through inter-band transitions leading to a high quantum
efficiency for photo-carrier generation [3]. Also, graphene is
a high mobility media for charge transport [4]. Due to these
unique properties graphene has been widely used in fabrication
of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Recently, graphene
has been utilized for fabrication of photodetectors. But, the
responsivity of the graphene photoconductors has not been
improved to more than tens of mA/W [5]–[8]. Such low
responsivity is due to small optical absorption and also fast
recombination rate in graphene. In order to overcome this
problem, graphene is coated by some semiconducting quantum
dots. Integration of graphene with colloidal semiconducting
nanoparticles leads to achieve higher responsivity. But, the
spectral range of photo-detection in the fabricated photode-
tectors based on quantum dots decorated graphene is reduced
because light absorption and electron-hole generation occurs in
Manuscript received November 25, 2017; revised December 14, 2017;
accepted December 15, 2017. Date of publication December 19, 2017;
date of current version January 25, 2018. This work was supported by the
Iran National Science Foundation. The review of this letter was arranged
by Editor O. Manasreh. (Corresponding author: Yaser Abdi.)
The authors are with the Nanophysics Laboratory, Department
of Physics, University of Tehran, Tehran 14395/547, Iran (e-mail:
y.abdi@ut.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LED.2017.2785333
0741-3106 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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quantum dots [9]. Consequently, the range of photo-detection
has been limited to the range of quantum dot band gap.
Graphene has been utilized for fabrication of electronic
devices [10]–[14]. In one hand, high electron mobility [4],
electrical and mechanical stability [15] and good electrical and
thermal conductivity [16] of graphene make it a promising
candidate for fabricated of ultra-fast transistors. On the other
hand, the zero band gap in graphene leads to a low on/off ratio
in graphene-channeled transistors that significantly obstructed
its applications. Recently, graphene has been incorporated in
silicon based electronic devices to improve their electrical
characteristics. Also, graphene can improve the optical prop-
erties of silicon based optoelectronic devices [17], [18].
Formation of graphene- silicon Schottky junction has been
reported recently by Chen et al. [19]. Their electrical mea-
surements on graphene coated silicon substrate have shown
rectifying diode behavior with a barrier energy of 0.41 eV
on n-type silicon and 0.45 eV on p-type silicon. Also,
Sinha and Lee [20] have recently developed a new model to
describe the graphene-Silicon Schottky junction. Regarding
such reported behavior, graphene-silicon can be employed in
fabrication of electronic devices.
In this work, we report fabrication of a novel bipolar
junction phototransistor based on graphene-silicon Schottky
junction for visible and infra-red photo-detection. The previous
works based on graphene structure are mostly operated either
in photoconductive or photodiode mode. But, photoconductors
and photodiodes typically have low on/off ratio and low
gain, respectively. In order to have a maximum on/off ratio
and high gain for graphene based detector, we introduce our
graphene based phototransistor as a promising candidate for
high sensitivity photodetector.
II. D EVICE FABRICATION
Device fabrication process which is schematically shown in
Figure 1, begins by cleaning (100) p-type silicon wafer using
RCA#1 solution. The cleaned wafer is then coated by SiO2
layer using thermal oxidation technique at 1200°C (Fig. 1a).
SiO2 layer is then patterned using photolithography to achieve
a desired opening for subsequent doping step (as shown
in Fig. 1b). The fabrication process is then followed by a vapor
phase doping of silicon to obtain n-type Si. This step is carried
out in a gas-phase doping furnaces using POCl3 as phosphorus
source at a temperature of 700°C. The prepared sample is
HEKMATIKIA AND ABDI: GRAPHENE–SILICON-BASED HIGH-SENSITIVITY AND BROADBAND PHOTOTRANSISTOR
Fig. 1. Schematic of process flow. a): deposition of SiO2 using thermal
oxidation, b): removing SiO2 layer on desired area for subsequent doping
step, c): gas phase doping of Si wafer to obtain n-type Si, d): deposition of
SiO2 , e): pattering the deposited layer using a standard photolithography,
f): deposition of graphene sheet, g): deposition of contact electrodes
through shadow mask.
then coated by SiO2 layer using previously mentioned thermal
oxidation process. The coated layer is then patterned to achieve
a structure such as shown in Fig 1e.
Graphene sheet is prepared using a modified Hummer’s
method [21], [22] and a subsequent chemical reduction
step [23]. Graphene sheets obtained by the modified Hummer’s
method have more oxygen containing groups and defects
compared with high quality graphene obtained by chemi-
cal vapor deposition method. Oxygen containing groups and
defects are proved to be favorable to enhance the performance
of photodetectors [24]. Also, the synthesis procedures in
Hummer’s method are suitable for large scale production.
In the beginning of the process 1 g of graphite powder is
immersed in 25 cc sulfuric acid. After that, 3 g of potassium
permanganate (KMnO4 ) is added to the solution and stirred
continuously for 2 hours. As obtained solution is then diluted
by 200 cc of deionized water and the temperature is kept
at 60°C. Finally, hydrogen peroxide is added to the solution
to reduce and solubilize residual permanganate. The achieved
solution is then filtered and dried to obtain brownish graphite
oxide powder. In order to reduce the graphene oxide and
obtaining graphene sheets, the obtained powder is dispersed
in deionized water and hydrazine is added into the obtained
dispersion. The solution is then kept at 90°C for 4 hours to
complete the reduction process.
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and optical images of
the prepared device beside its schematic are shown in figure 2.
As shown in this figure, graphene sheet is placed on the
contact electrode in one side and silicon substrate on the other
side. Working principle of the device can be understood by
the schematic. Graphene-Si Schottky junction acts as collec-
tor junction responsible for collection of the charge carrier.
In a phototransistor, the collector-base junction generates a
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217
Fig. 2. SEM (top left) and optical (top right) images of the device showing
graphene sheet coated on the Si/SiO2 /Au. Graphene sheet is extended
on the n-type Si region. Schematic of the device is shown in bottom of
the figure.
Fig. 3. Output characteristics of the fabricated device.
a): Collector current versus collector-base voltage at different emitter
current. b): Collector current versus the collector-emitter voltage at
different base current.
photocurrent which is fed into the base. On the other side,
Si p-n junction acts as emitter junction responsible for charge
injection into the base region. Base region which is larger than
the base of a normal transistor, includes graphene and silicon
materials. Schottky junction between the graphene and n-type
Si is a vertical junction created at the interface which is shown
in the schematic by area A.
In order to examine the electrical characteristic of the
fabricated transistor, we have measured the collector current
versus the collector-base voltage and collector-emitter voltage.
Figure 3 shows the electrical characteristic of the device for
different emitter current and different base current. As shown
in this figure, output characteristic of the fabricated device is
similar to previously reported bipolar junction transistors [25].
To investigate the photo-response of the fabricated device,
photoelectrical measurements of the phototransistor under IR
and visible light are performed. Figure 4a shows collector
current of the device versus collector-emitter voltage for
different intensities of the IR laser (wavelength of 810 nm).
The results show that photocurrent generated within the device
depends on the collector-emitter voltage. Increasing the bias
voltage leads to increase the photocurrent and it approaches
to its maximum value for bias voltages upper than 10 volts.
Mechanism of increasing the collector current by light expo-
sure is almost well-known. The photo-induced electron-hole
pairs are separated into electrons and holes at the graphene-
Si Schottky junction, and holes are accumulated in the base
region leading to increment of the electron injection from the
218
Fig. 4. Electrical characteristics of the device under different intensities
of IR laser (a) and visible light (b) illuminations. Color of the curves in
part b indicates the color of the incident light. Intensity of the visible light
was 0.5 µW.
Fig. 5. a): Real time measurement of the photo-response at constant
collector-emitter voltage of 2 volts for different intensities of the IR laser.
b): On/off ratio versus the collector-emitter voltage. Top figure indicates
the photocurrent rise time for 1µW illumination.
emitter into the base. Hence, the collector current is formed
by the superposition of the photo-current and emitter-base
injected current. Due to the poor efficiency of the electron-
hole separation at low collector-emitter voltages the collector
current is negligible. But, by increasing the bias voltage,
separation of the electron-hole pairs is improved, until it
reaches to its maximum value, and leads to an increment
and saturation in emitter-base injected current, resulting in
corresponding increase and saturation of collector current.
Electrical characteristics of the device under visible light
are also studied and the results are shown in Figure 4b.
The measurements are carried out under blue (wavelength
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IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 39, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018
Fig. 6. Responsivity and gain of the fabricated phototransistor versus
the incident light wavelength.
of 450 nm), green (wavelength of 530 nm) and red (wavelength
of 620 nm) light. It can be concluded that, the fabricated device
is a broad band photodetector sensitive to a broad range of
optical wavelengths.
Real time measurement of the IR laser with different
intensities is also carried out and the corresponding results
are shown in Figure 5a. The measurement is carried out at a
constant collector-emitter voltage of 2 volts. A negligible dark
current at bias voltages smaller than 5 volts leads to a high
on/off ratio as demonstrated in Figure 5a. In order to obtain
a maximum on/off ratio, it was measured for different bias
voltages. As shown in Figure 5b, the on/off ratio higher than
100 can be obtained for 1µW IR illumination at collector-
emitter voltage of 3.5 V. Response time is a crucial indicator
for phototransistors. As shown in Figure 5 (top figure), the
response time for our fabricated device is about 10ms. The
response times of photodetectors have been limited by long
carrier trapping times which may introduced by the defects in
the graphene hexagonal structure.
Responsivity and gain of the fabricated phototransistor are
also calculated. The results for different wavelengths are
shown in Figure 6. High responsivity at a broad range of
wavelength is an essential factor to fulfill the requirement of
a new generation of photodetectors, which is developed in our
device. High responsivity of about 11 A/W which is achieved
for wavelengths of 810nm, is two order of magnitude higher
than the previously reported graphene-FET detectors [6], [26]
and graphene based Schottky detector [18] and also is signifi-
cantly higher than the recently reported double-layer graphene
based field effect phototransistor [27].
IV. C ONCLUSION
Graphene-Si vertical junction is utilized as collector-base
junction in a bipolar transistor to realize photo-detection in
broad range of wavelengths. Fabricated device, based on the
graphene-Si Schottky junction, shows high responsivity in
order of 10A/W for visible to IR range of incident light, which
is significantly higher than the previously reported graphene
based devices such as graphene-FET detectors, graphene
based photo-conductors and graphene based photo-diodes. The
procedure of the fabrication of the proposed device is also
very easy and compatible with existing silicon technology,
which opens up a doorway for novel 2D material based
phototransistors.
HEKMATIKIA AND ABDI: GRAPHENE–SILICON-BASED HIGH-SENSITIVITY AND BROADBAND PHOTOTRANSISTOR
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