Plasmon‐Enhanced Pyro‐Phototronic Effect in MoTe ₂ /Ge Near‐Infrared Photodetectors

ABSTRACT This paper presents a mixed‐dimensional Ag NPs‐modified MoTe 2 /Ge near‐infrared (NIR) photodetector, which leverages the interface polar symmetry of built‐in electric fields in the Schottky junction and p‐n heterojunction and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) to induce a pyro‐phototronic effect (PPE). Although it has been demonstrated that the pyroelectric effect can be induced by a built‐in electric field, thereby extending its applicability to a broader range of material systems, the number of reported 2D/3D mixed‐dimensional photodetectors coupling the pyroelectric effect is still limited. In this study, by successfully coupling pyroelectric and LSPR effects, the response performance of the Ag NPs‐modified MoTe 2 /Ge NIR photodetector is significantly enhanced. The fastest response speeds are a rise time of 1.22 µs and a fall time of 8.22 µs, representing 28.2 and 5.1 fold improvements, respectively, over the uncoupled photodetector. The peak responsivity and specific detectivity also reach 1040.4 mA/W and 4.86 × 10 10 Jones under 1064 nm, respectively. In addition, a proof‐of‐concept optical communication system was constructed, which successfully demonstrated real‐time transmission of complex data streams and convincingly shows the excellent performance from a practical application perspective.