Performance Improvement of MoS₂ Gas Sensor at Room Temperature

The poor response time and incomplete recovery of MoS2 sensor at room temperature (RT) have been a serious issue to obstruct its widely sensing applications. In present work, we comprehensively studied three methods: rising temperature, building field-effect transistors (FETs), and adding light illumination to improve the performance of the device. The related sensing mechanism of the three processes was also analyzed. The high response rate up to 2510%, low theoretical concentration detection limit down to 693 ppb, and excellent recovery at RT to NO2 were achieved for the MoS2 FET sensor with the aid of light illumination. This significant improvement in sensing performances is mainly attributed to the activated sensing layer by phonon energy transfer and enhanced population of the charge carrier raised from optical energy. Schottky barrier modulation was also an important factor to impact sensing performance. Furthermore, the MoS2 nanosheets exhibit good photosensing characteristics such as rapid photon response, high light-induced photocurrent, and so on. It has been demonstrated that the light illuminated FET configuration can effectively accelerate response time and promote recovery rate of MoS2-based sensor operating at RT, which provides a strategy to design an optoelectronic device with optimal sensing properties.