Electric and thermal coupled light fields regulating photoelectric sensing performance in photoferroelectrics

Traditional photoelectric semiconductors with single-source energy sensing or hybrid energy sensing integrated with other materials constrain their effectiveness in achieving power stability and device miniaturization. In contrast, photoferroelectrics offer multiple energy responses to electric, thermal, and light fields within a single material, thereby regulating the photoelectric sensing performances. This work proposes a multi-field coupling effect involving electrical, thermal, and light fields to enhance photoelectric sensing performances in electroneutral ion group doped BiFeO3 photoferroelectrics with synergistic improvement in polarization, bandgap, and leakage properties. Notably, the photocurrent output is significantly engineered by applying dual-field modes of pre-poling or thermal coupled light fields compared with the light field sensing solely. More importantly, the responsivity of the optimized photoelectric sensors is increased by nearly five times when pre-poling and thermal fields are applied simultaneously, providing convincible evidence of the sensing enhancement derived from the multi-field coupling effect. This work provides a feasible strategy to improve the photoelectric sensors through multi-field coupling, promoting the application of multifunctional photoelectric devices.