Molybdenum
disulfide (MoS2) as a typical two-dimensional
(2D) transition-metal dichalcogenide exhibits great potential applications
for the next-generation nanoelectronics such as photodetectors. However,
most MoS2-based photodetectors hold obvious disadvantages
including a narrow spectral response in the visible region, poor photoresponsivity,
and slow response speed. Here, for the first time, we report the design
of a two-dimensional MoS2/GaN van der Waals (vdWs) heterostructure
photodetector consisting of few-layer p-type MoS2 and very
thin n-type GaN flakes. Thanks to the good crystal quality of the
2D-GaN flake and the built-in electric field in the interface depletion
region of the MoS2/GaN p–n junction, photogenerated
carriers can be rapidly separated and more excitons are collected
by electrodes toward the high photoresponsivity of 328 A/W and a fast
response time of 400 ms under the illumination of 532 nm light, which
is seven times faster than pristine MoS2 flake. Additionally,
the response spectrum of the photodetector is also broadened to the
UV region with a high photoresponsivity of 27.1 A/W and a fast response
time of 300 ms after integrating with the 2D-GaN flake, exhibiting
an advantageous synergetic effect. These excellent performances render
MoS2/GaN vdWs heterostructure photodetectors as promising
and competitive candidates for next-generation optoelectronic devices.