Switchable ferroelectric photovoltaic response in Sc0.2Al0.8N-based optoelectronic devices

Abstract

Abstract Ferroelectric photovoltaic (FePV) materials are naturally considered a new type of solid-state optoelectronic memory conducting with high storage densities and nonvolatile states. This work investigates ferroelectric properties of Sc0.2Al0.8N thin film with a remnant polarization of 225.2 μC cm−2 and researches the switchable FePV effect and photo-diode characteristics of two-terminal Sc0.2Al0.8N devices. When adopting a two-dimensional material MoTe2 to form a heterostructure, both the photo absorption spectrum and the conductivity of ScAlN-based two-terminal device would be promoted, resulting in the photocurrent at the level of μA cm–2. This work suggests ScAlN can provide a promising FePV implementation for constructing high-performance optoelectronics.