Electrical Transport of Nb‐Doped MoS <sub>2</sub> Homojunction P–N Diode: Investigating NDR and Avalanche Effect
2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are promising candidates for next-generation nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. Yet, controlling layer number, stacking angle, and interfacial quality in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures remains challenging, often limiting device performance and reproducibility. Homojunctions formed within a single 2D material can circumvent these issues, but their reliable fabrication and systematic exploration of exotic quantum phenomena remain elusive. Here, we report the fabrication and characterization of a thickness-modulated lateral p-n homojunction from a single flake of Nb-doped MoS<sub>2</sub>. This configuration suppresses interface traps without external interface engineering, enabling excellent and highly stable device performance. The diodes exhibit strong rectifying behavior with a rectification ratio of ≈10⁴ and a remarkably low ideality factor (η = 1.23). Notably, we observe field-dependent negative differential resistance (NDR) at low temperatures, offering unique prospects for unconventional electronic applications. The devices also achieve high photoresponsivity (1.09 × 10<sup>3</sup> A W<sup>-1</sup>), external quantum efficiency (2.16 × 10⁵%), and detectivity (7.5 × 10<sup>10</sup> Jones). Furthermore, electrical breakdown studies reveal avalanche multiplication at relatively low voltages, enabling high-performance avalanche photodetectors. Overall, our results demonstrate a simple yet robust approach for probing carrier multiplication in 2D homojunction p-n diodes, underlining the broad potential of TMDCs in advanced optoelectronic and quantum device applications.
Authors
- Goki Eda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1575-8020)
- Kalyan Jyoti Sarkar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0426-7517)
- Jamal Aziz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7608-339X)
- Zdeněk Sofer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1391-4448)
- Umer Ahsan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6941-2083)
- Martin Loula
- Paweł Piotr Michałowski
- Muhammad Farooq Khan
- Ehsan Elahi
- Yuan Chen
Institutions
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- University of Wuppertal (DE)
- Sejong University (KR)
- Łukasiewicz Research Network (PL)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (CZ)
- University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-12-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202509043
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy
- Ministry of Education, India
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju