Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

THz modulators based 2D nanosheet materials

World Congress on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

October 16-17, 2017 Dubai, UAE

Zhaoxin Geng and Hongda Chen

Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

Terahertz (THz) modulator plays an important role in THz communication system. There are different modulators which have been developed to meet different application. Especially, THz modulator based on metamaterials need complex fabrication processes and high cost, therefore, the simpler and cheaper devices are in greatly demand for THz communication in near future. Two-dimension (2D) materials, such as graphene, MoS2, WS2 and other beyond graphene materials, were introduced to modulator to balance between modulation characters and cost. Therefore, different THz modulators based on different 2D materials were developed and compare the difference among them. The results illustrate that graphene and MoS2 did not present ideal results due to their relatively narrow band gap. WS2, as another kind of 2D materials, which has wider band gap and some merits such as better chemical and thermal stability, could be used for photoelectric devices in THz regime. An all-optical pumped THz modulator based on WS2-silicon, MoS2-silicon and graphene-silicon heterostructure were demonstrated. The p-type WS2 was formed by an annealing treatment in air and the silicon substrate was slightly n-type doped with a high-resistivity. Both the modulator and bare silicon (as reference) were measured by THz time-domain spectroscope (THz-TDS) system. The results compared with bare silicon, THz transmissivity of the modulator significantly reduced when the power of pumping laser increased. A relative low normalized transmission of this device was around 5% with a radiation light power of 4 W, while the bare silicon was 45.6% under the same condition. The working mechanism of the modulator lies in that carriers transfer between the silicon and WS2 when the pump light illuminates the chip. We compared the difference between results of the bare silicon, the WS2-Si sample before annealed and after annealed and found that the WS2-Si sample could separate electrons and holes more effectively. THz transmissivity decreased when conductivity of the modulator increased due to separation of electrons and holes. Meanwhile, the MoS2-based device even exhibited much higher modulation efficiency compared with the graphene-based device. The mechanism of the convincing modulation enhancement originated from MoS2 annealed as a p-doping, which is different from that of graphene-based modulator. Therefore, under a guidance of the working mechanism, THz modulators with higher modulation depth could be developed based WS2-silicon heterostructure through changing the annealing time, layers of WS2, bias voltage, pumping light power and so on. The unique optical modulating properties of the device based on 2D materials exhibit tremendous promise for applications in terahertz communication based graphene device, we also developed other optoelectronic devices such as frequency tripler, thermo-optic modulator and mixer.

Biography :

Zhaoxin Geng has completed his PhD degree from Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Presently, he is an Associate Professor of School of Information Engineering, Minzu University of China. Meanwhile, he is a Visiting Associate Researcher in MEMS Research Center, Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University. Presently, he works in Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a Postdoctoral Fellow. His current research focuses on the micro/nanofluidic, biosensor and applications of nanoplasmonic and localized surface Plasmon resonance.