Role of Layer Thickness and Field-Effect Mobility on Photoresponsivity of Indium Selenide (InSe) Based Phototransistors

Understanding and optimizing the properties of photoactive two-dimensional (2D) Van der Waals solids are crucial for developing optoelectronics applications. Here we present a detailed investigation of layer dependent photoconductive behavior of InSe based field-effect transistors (FETs). InSe based FETs with five different channel thickness (t, 20 nm < t < 100 nm) were investigated with a continuous laser source of {\lambda} = 658 nm (1.88 eV) over a wide range of illumination power of 22.8 nW < P < 1.29 {\mu}W. All the devices studied, showed signatures of photogating, however, our investigations suggest that the photoresponsivities are strongly dependent on the thickness of the conductive channel. A correlation between the field-effect mobility ({\mu}FE) values (as a function of channel thickness, t) and photoresponsivity (R) indicates that in general R increases with increasing {\mu}FE (decreasing t) and vice versa. The maximum responsivity of ~ 7.84 A/W and ~ 0.59 A/W was obtained for the device with t = 20 nm and t = 100 nm respectively. These values could substantially increase under the application of a gate voltage. The structure-property correlation-based studies presented here indicate the possibility of tuning the optical properties of InSe based photo-FETs for a variety of applications related to photodetector and/or active layers in solar cells.