A flexible, scalable, and self-powered mid-infrared detector based on transparent PEDOT: PSS/graphene composite

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2019.09.062. © 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/A flexible, self-powered and semi-transparent mid-infrared photodetector is demonstrated with graphene and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) composite on poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) substrate. The effective dispersion of graphene nanoplatelets within polymer chains has yielded a low requisite loading of graphene – only 3 wt% for the implement of a detector with optimized photo-thermoelectric effect, high flexibility and high transparency. Under a broadband infrared radiation with peak wavelength at 7.8 μm, 1.4 × 107 cm Hz1/2 W−1 photo detectivity is achieved in composite detector, which is 22 times higher than pure PEDOT: PSS. The demonstrated detector array exhibits good optical transparency of 63% and is capable of being bent to a radius of 1 mm due to strong interaction between composite film and PVA substrate. These features make this scalable mid-infrared photodetector very promising as next-generation optoelectronics.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada || Canada Research Chairs program || CMC Micro-systems Micro-Nano Technology Financial Assistance [project reference 6610