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Innovative light detector with 2D materials

Innovative light detector with 2D materials

Two research groups at ETH Zurich have joined forces to develop a novel light detector. It consists of two-​dimensional layers of different materials that are coupled to a silicon optical waveguide. In the future, this approach can also be used to make LEDs and optical modulators.

Fast and highly efficient modulators as well as detectors for light are the core components of data transmission through fibre optic cables. In recent years, those building blocks for telecommunications based on existing optical materials have been constantly improved, but now it is getting increasingly difficult to achieve further improvements. That takes the combined forces of different specializations, as two research groups at ETH Zurich have now shown.

A group of scientists led by professors Jürg Leuthold of the Institute for Electromagnetic Fields and Lukas Novotny of the Institute for Photonics, together with colleagues at the National Institute for Material Science in Tsukuba (Japan), have developed an extremely fast and sensitive light detector based on the interplay between novel two-​dimensional materials and nano-​photonic optical waveguides. Their results were recently published in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Source: “A fast light detector made of two-dimensional materials”, Zurich ETH News, Oliver Morsch

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