Work

Geometrical Tailoring of Shockley–Ramo Bipolar Photocurrent in Self‐Powered GaAs Nanodevices

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Bipolar photoresponse—where photocurrent polarity reverses with excitation wavelength, gate voltage, or other conditions—is essential for optical logic, neuromorphic computing, and imaging. Unlike unipolar responses, bipolar behavior enables direct binary encoding and enhanced photodetection contrast. However, in conventional photoconductive or photovoltaic systems, the simultaneous and opposite‐directional transport of electrons and holes often suppresses polarity switching. Recent self‐powered Shockley–Ramo (SR) photoresponse in gapless materials also show only unipolar signals due to strong, irreversible electron‐hole asymmetry. Here, for the first‐time, bipolar SR photoresponse is demonstrated in GaAs nanoconstriction devices by exploiting reversible electron‐hole asymmetry. The longer carrier lifetimes in GaAs enable sub‐diffusion‐length control of carrier dynamics through geometry. By tuning photocarrier dynamics near the nanoconstriction for both majority electrons and minority holes, the SR response is modulated to exhibit dual polarities. At low excitation, photoelectrons dominate. As excitation increases, intervalley scattering populates higher‐energy L ‐valleys (µ e,L ≪ µ e,Γ ), while hot‐phonon bottleneck suppresses return to Γ, reducing the effective electron contribution and leading to polarity reversal driven by the growing dominance of photoexcited holes (µ h > µ e,L ). These results, supported by SR theory, show that nanoscale geometric engineering, together with the reversible electron‐hole asymmetry, enables self‐powered bipolar photocurrent responses, offering new routes toward advanced optoelectronic devices.

Source: Advanced Optical Materials

DOI: 10.1002/adom.202501597