Bifunctional Design of Ferroelectric-Order and Band-Engineering in Cu:KTN Crystal for Extended Self-Powered Photoelectric Response

Photoelectric conversion in ferroelectric crystals can support many important applications in modern on-chip technology, but suffering from two problems, low responsive current and narrow responsive range. Especially, wide-gap ferroelectric oxides are only active at short-wavelength ultraviolet region with weak photocurrent at nanoampere levels. Here, a bifunctional design strategy of ferroelectric-order and electronic-band to improve the photocurrent and extend the responsive range simultaneously, is proposed. In a Cu-doped KTa_1−xNb_xO₃ (KTN) perovskite crystal, a conductive channel is constructed by “head-to-head” ferroelectric domains, associated with the emergence of micrometer-scale supercells. In addition, the introduction of Cu⁺ ion can induce defect levels, thus extending the responsive range beyond the inherent absorption of pure KTN. Through rational device optimization, a record self-powered responsivity of 5.23 mA W⁻¹ is realized in Cu:KTN photodetector, which is two orders of magnitude higher than undoped KTN crystal. The temperature-dependent light diffraction and photocurrent show that the ferroelectric-order is dominated in this photoresponse behavior. Moreover, Cu:KTN detector is active in the broadband range from 390 to 1030 nm, covering ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions. This work provides an effective method for the design of next-generation self-powered photodetectors with ultrahigh responsivity and ultrawide responsive range.