Photocurrent generation of a single-gate graphene p–n junction fabricated by interfacial modification

A back-gate graphene p-n junction was achieved by selective interfacial modification of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene field effect transistor (FET). Silane self-assembled monolayer (SAM) patterns were used to fabricate uniform p- and n-doped regions and a sharp p-n junction in the graphene FET channel. A gate-dependent photocurrent response was observed at the graphene p-n junction, and exhibited a maximum signal between two Dirac point voltages of SAM-doped graphene regions. A spatial photocurrent map shows that the photocurrent generated at the junction region was much larger than that from graphene/electrode junctions under the same incident laser power. This single-peak characteristic photocurrent in CVD graphene is dominated by the photothermoelectric contribution, and is highly sensitive to the power of incident laser. The SAM interfacial modification method provides a feasible route for the fabrication of efficient graphene-based photodetectors.