Substrate Effects on the Speed Limiting Factor of WSe₂ Photodetectors

We investigate the time-resolved photoelectric response of WSe$_2$ crystals on common glass and flexible polyimide substrates to determine the effect of the dielectric environment on the speed of the photodetectors. We show that varying the substrate material can alter the speed-limiting mechanism: while the detectors on polyimide are RC limited, those on glass are limited by slower excitonic diffusion processes. We attribute this to a shortening of the depletion layer at the metal electrode/WSe2 interface caused by the higher dielectric screening of glass compared to polyimide. The photodetectors on glass show a tunable bandwidth which can be increased to 2.6 MHz with increasing the electric field.