Ultra-fast detection of light lies at the heart of optical communication systems. Driven by the IoT and 5G, data communication bandwidth is growing exponentially, thus requiring even faster optical detectors that can be integrated into photonic circuits.
An important advantage of these devices based on graphene and other two-dimensional materials is that they can be integrated monolithically with silicon photonics enabling a new class of photonic integrated circuits. The next step is to develop prototype photonic circuitry and explore ways to improve large-scale production of these devices.
ICFO researcher Mathieu Massicotte said: "Everyone knew graphene could make ultra-fast photodetectors, but related two-dimensional crystals were still lagging very much behind. In our work we show that by teaming up these two materials, we can obtain a photodetector that is not only ultrafast but also highly efficient."
