  In this paper, we report the synthesis of high-quality Ta2Ni3Se8 crystals
free of noble or toxic elements and the fabrication and testing of
photodetectors on the wire samples. A broadband photoresponse from 405 nm to
1550 nm is observed, along with performance parameters including relatively
high photoresponsivity (10 mA W^-1) and specific detectivity (3.5 * 10^7 Jones)
and comparably short response time ({\tau}_rise = 433 ms, {\tau}_decay = 372
ms) for 1064 nm, 0.5 V bias and 1.352 mW mm^-2. Through extensive measurement
and analysis, it is determined that the dominant mechanism for photocurrent
generation is the photo-bolometric effect, which is believed to be responsible
for the very broad spectral detection capability. More importantly, the
pronounced response to 1310 nm and 1550 nm wavelengths manifests its promising
applications in optical communications. Considering the quasi-one-dimensional
structure with layered texture, the potential to build nanodevices on Ta2Ni3Se8
makes it even more important in future electronic and optoelectronic
applications.
