Polarization-sensitive near-infrared photodetectors based on silver telluride nanowires with a high dichroic ratio

This work presents a study on polarization-sensitive near-infrared photodetectors based on Ag2Te nanowires. High-quality single-crystalline Ag2Te nanowires are synthesized via chemical vapor deposition. The fabricated photodetector exhibits competitive performance compared to other nanoscale silver chalcogenide-based devices. Under 780 nm light illumination at room temperature, the photodetector demonstrates a responsivity of 0.65 A/W, an external quantum efficiency of 102.74 %, a specific detectivity of 1.09 × 109 Jones, and a response time of 21 ms, maintaining stability over 100 photo-switching cycles. The dark current, photocurrent, responsivity and specific detectivity are characterized and studied across a temperature range of 100-300 K. Notably, the photodetector displays excellent polarization angle-dependent photo-response, achieving a maximum linear dichroic ratio of 12.1 under 830 nm light illumination. Such a linear dichroic ratio of 12.1 surpasses that of most reported nanoscale polarized near-infrared photodetectors, and is promising for practical applications. These findings highlight the potential of Ag2Te nanowire-based photodetectors for practical applications in polarization-sensitive near-infrared detection.