Broadband spectral photoresponse has shown bright prospects for various optoelectronic devices, while fulfilling high photoactivity beyond the material bandgap is a great challenge. Here, we present a molecular pyroelectric, N-isopropylbenzylaminium trifluoroacetate ( N-IBATFA), of which the broadband photo-pyroelectric effects allow for self-driven wide spectral photodetection. As a simple organic binary salt, N-IBATFA possesses a large polarization (~9.5 μC cm −2), high pyroelectric coefficient (~6.9 μC cm −2 K −1) and figures-of-merits ( F V = 187.9 × 10 −2 cm 2 μC −1; F D = 881.5 × 10 −5 Pa −0.5) comparable to the state-of-art pyroelectric materials. Particularly, such intriguing attributes endow broadband photo-pyroelectric effect, namely, transient currents covering ultraviolet (UV, 266 nm) to near-infrared (NIR, 1950 nm) spectral regime, which breaks the restriction of its optical absorption and thus allows wide UV-NIR spectral photodetection. Our finding highlights the potential of molecular system as high-performance candidates toward self-powered wide spectral photodetection.
Broadband spectral photoresponse has potential for optoelectronic devices, but obtaining high photoactivity beyond the material bandgap is challenging. Here, the authors report the development of a molecular pyroelectric material with broadband photopyroelectric effects.