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Mon 20-04-2015  |
Graphene Brings Photodetectors to the Brink of Terahertz Speeds |
| Researchers at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain have been at the forefront of exploiting graphene’s optoelectronic capabilities.
The latest research out of ICFO has demonstrated a graphene-based ultrafast photodetector that can convert absorbed light into an electrical voltage at speeds of less than 50 femtoseconds. How fast is that? A femtosecond is a thousandth of a millionth of a millionth of a second. So fast—ultrafast. In research published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the ICFO team addressed the niggling issue in graphene-based photothermoelectric devices, specifically charge carrier cooling times, which has limited their switching speeds. |
