Highly Sensitive and Broadband Organic Photodetectors with Fast Speed Gain and Large Linear Dynamic Range at Low Forward Bias

Photodetectors with high photoelectronic gain generally require a high negative working voltage and a very low environment temperature. They also exhibit low response speed and narrow linear dynamic range (LDR). Here, an organic photodiode is demonstrated, which shows a large amount of photon to electron multiplication at room temperature with highest external quantum efficiency (EQE) from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared region of 5.02 × 10³% (29.55 A W⁻¹) under a very low positive voltage of 1.0 V, accompanied with a fast response speed and a high LDR from 10⁻⁷ to 10¹ mW cm⁻². At a relatively high positive bias of 10 V, the EQE is up to 1.59 × 10⁵% (936.05 A W⁻¹). Inversely, no gain is found at negative bias. The gain behavior is exactly similar to a bipolar phototransistor, which is attributed to the photoinduced release of accumulated carriers. The devices at a low voltage exhibit a normalized detectivity (D*) over 10¹⁴ Jones by actual measurements, which is about two or three order of magnitudes higher than that of the highest existing photodetectors. These pave a new way for realization of high sensitive detectors with fast response toward the single photon detection.