Atomically thin noble metal dichalcogenide: a broadband mid-infrared semiconductor

• Published in: Nature communications 2018-04, Vol.9 (1), p.1545-9, Article 1545
• Main Authors: Yu, Xuechao, Yu, Peng, Wu, Di, Singh, Bahadur, Zeng, Qingsheng, Lin, Hsin, Zhou, Wu, Lin, Junhao, Suenaga, Kazu, Liu, Zheng, Wang, Qi Jie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/133; 142/126; 147/137; 147/28; 147/3; 639/301/1005; 639/301/1019/1021; 639/624/399; Biomedical materials; Broadband; Cadmium; Cadmium tellurides; Cameras; Chalcogenides; Electromagnetic absorption; Energy gap; Humanities and Social Sciences; Indium antimonide; Infrared detectors; Intermetallic compounds; Mercury; Mercury (metal); multidisciplinary; Night vision; Noble metals; Optoelectronic devices; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductors; Superlattices; Tellurides; Wide bandgap semiconductors
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03935-0

The interest in mid-infrared technologies surrounds plenty of important optoelectronic applications ranging from optical communications, biomedical imaging to night vision cameras, and so on. Although narrow bandgap semiconductors, such as Mercury Cadmium Telluride and Indium Antimonide, and quantum superlattices based on inter-subband transitions in wide bandgap semiconductors, have been employed for mid-infrared applications, it remains a daunting challenge to search for other materials that possess suitable bandgaps in this wavelength range. Here, we demonstrate experimentally for the first time that two-dimensional (2D) atomically thin PtSe 2 has a variable bandgap in the mid-infrared via layer and defect engineering. Here, we show that bilayer PtSe 2 combined with defects modulation possesses strong light absorption in the mid-infrared region, and we realize a mid-infrared photoconductive detector operating in a broadband mid-infrared range. Our results pave the way for atomically thin 2D noble metal dichalcogenides to be employed in high-performance mid-infrared optoelectronic devices. The mid-infrared technologies are essential to various applications but suffer from limited materials with suitable bandgap. Here the authors demonstrate that two-dimensional atomically thin PtSe 2 with variable bandgaps in the mid-infrared via layer and defect engineering is highly promising for mid-infrared optoelectronics.