There is a growing number of applications demanding highly sensitive photodetectors in the mid-infrared. Thermal photodetectors, such as bolometers, have emerged as the technology of choice, because ...they do not need cooling. The performance of a bolometer is linked to its temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR, ∼2-4% K
for state-of-the-art materials). Graphene is ideally suited for optoelectronic applications, with a variety of reported photodetectors ranging from visible to THz frequencies. For the mid-infrared, graphene-based detectors with TCRs ∼4-11% K
have been demonstrated. Here we present an uncooled, mid-infrared photodetector, where the pyroelectric response of a LiNbO
crystal is transduced with high gain (up to 200) into resistivity modulation for graphene. This is achieved by fabricating a floating metallic structure that concentrates the pyroelectric charge on the top-gate capacitor of the graphene channel, leading to TCRs up to 900% K
, and the ability to resolve temperature variations down to 15 μK.
Electron pairing in the vast majority of superconductors follows the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, which describes the condensation of electrons into pairs with antiparallel ...spins in a singlet state with an s-wave symmetry. Unconventional superconductivity was predicted in single-layer graphene (SLG), with the electrons pairing with a p-wave or chiral d-wave symmetry, depending on the position of the Fermi energy with respect to the Dirac point. By placing SLG on an electron-doped (non-chiral) d-wave superconductor and performing local scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, here we show evidence for a p-wave triggered superconducting density of states in SLG. The realization of unconventional superconductivity in SLG offers an exciting new route for the development of p-wave superconductivity using two-dimensional materials with transition temperatures above 4.2 K.
The combination of plasmonic nanoparticles and graphene enhances the responsivity and spectral selectivity of graphene-based photodetectors. However, the small area of the metal–graphene junction, ...where the induced electron–hole pairs separate, limits the photoactive region to submicron length scales. Here, we couple graphene with a plasmonic grating and exploit the resulting surface plasmon polaritons to deliver the collected photons to the junction region of a metal–graphene–metal photodetector. This gives a 400% enhancement of responsivity and a 1000% increase in photoactive length, combined with tunable spectral selectivity. The interference between surface plasmon polaritons and the incident wave introduces new functionalities, such as light flux attraction or repulsion from the contact edges, enabling the tailored design of the photodetector’s spectral response. This architecture can also be used for surface plasmon biosensing with direct-electric-redout, eliminating the need of bulky optics.
The equilibrium optical phonons of graphene are well characterized in terms of anharmonicity and electron-phonon interactions; however, their non-equilibrium properties in the presence of hot charge ...carriers are still not fully explored. Here we study the Raman spectrum of graphene under ultrafast laser excitation with 3 ps pulses, which trade off between impulsive stimulation and spectral resolution. We localize energy into hot carriers, generating non-equilibrium temperatures in the ~1700-3100 K range, far exceeding that of the phonon bath, while simultaneously detecting the Raman response. The linewidths of both G and 2D peaks show an increase as function of the electronic temperature. We explain this as a result of the Dirac cones' broadening and electron-phonon scattering in the highly excited transient regime, important for the emerging field of graphene-based photonics and optoelectronics.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are used as secondary storage in digital electronic devices owing to low cost and large data storage capacity. Due to the exponentially increasing amount of data, there is a ...need to increase areal storage densities beyond ~1 Tb/in
. This requires the thickness of carbon overcoats (COCs) to be <2 nm. However, friction, wear, corrosion, and thermal stability are critical concerns below 2 nm, limiting current technology, and restricting COC integration with heat assisted magnetic recording technology (HAMR). Here we show that graphene-based overcoats can overcome all these limitations, and achieve two-fold reduction in friction and provide better corrosion and wear resistance than state-of-the-art COCs, while withstanding HAMR conditions. Thus, we expect that graphene overcoats may enable the development of 4-10 Tb/in
areal density HDDs when employing suitable recording technologies, such as HAMR and HAMR+bit patterned media.
Graphene is ideally suited for optoelectronics. It offers absorption at telecom wavelengths, high-frequency operation and CMOS-compatibility. We show how high speed optoelectronic mixing can be ...achieved with high frequency (~20 GHz bandwidth) graphene field effect transistors (GFETs). These devices mix an electrical signal injected into the GFET gate and a modulated optical signal onto a single layer graphene (SLG) channel. The photodetection mechanism and the resulting photocurrent sign depend on the SLG Fermi level (E
). At low E
(<130 meV), a positive photocurrent is generated, while at large E
(>130 meV), a negative photobolometric current appears. This allows our devices to operate up to at least 67 GHz. Our results pave the way for GFETs optoelectronic mixers for mm-wave applications, such as telecommunications and radio/light detection and ranging (RADAR/LIDARs.).
Nature Communications 8: Article number: 14024 (2017); Published: 19 January 2017; Updated: 1 March 2017 The present address for U. Sassi is incorrect in this Article. This author does not have a ...present address. The correct full affiliation details for this author are given below: Cambridge Graphene Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK.
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