Ultrasensitive graphene far-infrared power detectors

Author: McKitterick C B   Prober D E   Vora H   Du X  

Publisher: IOP Publishing

E-ISSN: 1361-648X|27|16|164203-164215

ISSN: 0953-8984

Source: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol.27, Iss.16, 2015-04, pp. : 164203-164215

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

We describe the properties of ultrasensitive graphene photon detectors for use in the far-infrared/terahertz spectral region and present theoretical predictions for their power detection sensitivity. These predictions are based on two graphene contacting schemes with superconducting contacts: contacts with a thin insulating barrier, and direct superconducting contacts. To quantitatively assess these predictions, we perform thermal measurements of graphene at low temperatures and analyse them to extract information on electron–phonon cooling in graphene. These new results for the electron–phonon cooling channel allow reliable prediction of the noise equivalent power (NEP) that can be expected from an optimized graphene detector, using measurement of the Johnson noise emission as the thermometry method. We find that an NEP of 2 × 10−19 W Hz−1/2 should be achievable under certain biasing conditions with an ideal device.