Optimizing the Photothermoelectric Effect in Graphene

Among its many uses, graphene shows significant promise for optical and optoelectronic applications. In particular, devices based on the photothermoelectric effect (PTE) in graphene can offer a strong and fast photoresponse with a high signal-to-noise ratio while consuming minimal power. In this work, we discuss how to optimize the performance of graphene PTE photodetectors by tuning the light confinement, device geometry, and material quality. This study should prove useful for the design of devices using the PTE in graphene, with applications including optical sensing, data communications, multigas sensing, and others.
ICN2 is supported by the Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence program, funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI, Grant No. SEV-2017-0706), and is funded by the CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 825272 (ULISSES) and from the project “Waveguide-Integrated Mid-Infrared Graphene Detectors for Optical Gas Sensor Systems,” Reference No. PCI2018-093128, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation - AEI.