The enormous impact of graphene on both fundamental science and potential device applications has rejuvenated interest in other layered materials as well, where individual atomic or molecular layers interact weakly through the Van der Waals force. Unfortunately, in spite of great promise in electronic applications, most of these materials couple weakly to electromagnetic radiation when their thickness is reduced to atomic or molecular scales, and hence much of their optical or opto-electronic capabilities remain unexploited. Here, we will describe some of the recent breakthroughs in sensitizing atomically thin membranes, in particular graphene, to electromagnetic radiation. Specifically, a photovoltaic route involving multi-component two-dimensional hybrids obtained via vertical stacking of different layered materials will be described in detail. We will show how such hybrid heterostructures of atomically thin membranes with clean interfaces promise devices that combine advantages of ultimate miniaturization and multiple opto-electronic functionality including gate tunable persistent photoconductivity to nonvolatile optoelectronic memory.

The enormous impact of graphene on both fundamental science and potential device applications has rejuvenated interest in other layered materials as well, where individual atomic or molecular layers interact weakly through the Van der Waals force. Unfortunately, in spite of great promise in electronic applications, most of these materials couple weakly to electromagnetic radiation when their thickness is reduced to atomic or molecular scales, and hence much of their optical or opto-electronic capabilities remain unexploited. Here, we will describe some of the recent breakthroughs in sensitizing atomically thin membranes, in particular graphene, to electromagnetic radiation. Specifically, a photovoltaic route involving multi-component two-dimensional hybrids obtained via vertical stacking of different layered materials will be described in detail. We will show how such hybrid heterostructures of atomically thin membranes with clean interfaces promise devices that combine advantages of ultimate miniaturization and multiple opto-electronic functionality including gate tunable persistent photoconductivity to nonvolatile optoelectronic memory.