Ultrasensitive resistance switching and giant photoresponsivity from visible to mid-infrared of quasi one-dimensional Weyl semimetal (TaSe4)2I

Photodetectors with high responsivity, broadband response to mid-infrared range are in a great demand in optical detection area. Topological charge-density-wave (CDW) semimetal materials with high carrier mobility and near zero bandgap provide an emerging route to meet the demand. Here we firstly investigated the photo/magnetic field reshaped CDW melting phenomenon of quasi one dimensional (1D) topological CDW semimetal (TaSe4)2I. Two orders of magnitude of hysteretic resistance variation is achieved due to CDW melting, which can be manipulated by electric, magnetic field or photoexcitation. In situ polarized Raman scattering spectroscopy reveals the concurrent occurrence of both electronic and structural phase transition. Surprisingly, the phase transition could be driven by applying a minimum voltage interval of 10 {\mu}V or a magnetic field interval of 83 Oe at a moderate temperature 120 K. The sharpness of the transition is manifested by single point current jumping (SPCJ). Photodetectors based on this transition has much superior performance than that of quasi two dimensional (2D) TaS2 reported in literature, which is also elaborated by our density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Photoresponsivity at 120 K from visible (405 A/W @ 532 nm) to mid-infrared (31.67 A/W @ 4.73 um) and detectivity (7.2E9 Jones @ 532 nm, 5.6E8 Jones @ 4.73 um) are both one order of magnitude higher than that of TaS2 while the photoresponsivity and detectivity also outperforms commercialized HgCdTe material. Our work not only reveals the important role of dimensionality in CDW phase transition, but also paves a new way for implementing ultrasensitive, broadband photodetector as well as transconductance transistor, memory devices by exploiting quasi-1D topological CDW materials