IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v3y2012i1d10.1038_ncomms1656.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended graphene

Author

Listed:
  • Leonhard Prechtel

    (Technische Universität München, Am Coulombwall 4a, 85748 Garching, Germany.)

  • Li Song

    (Research Center for Exotic Nanocarbons, Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano-shi 380-8553, Japan.
    Rice University)

  • Dieter Schuh

    (Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany.)

  • Pulickel Ajayan

    (Rice University)

  • Werner Wegscheider

    (Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zurich)

  • Alexander W. Holleitner

    (Technische Universität München, Am Coulombwall 4a, 85748 Garching, Germany.)

Abstract

Graphene, a two-dimensional layer of carbon atoms, is a promising building block for a wide range of optoelectronic devices owing to its extraordinary electrical and optical properties, including the ability to absorb ~2% of incident light over a broad wavelength range. While the RC-limited bandwidth of graphene-based photodetectors can be estimated to be as large as 640 GHz, conventional electronic measurement techniques lack for analysing photocurrents at such frequencies. Here we report on time-resolved picosecond photocurrents in freely suspended graphene contacted by metal electrodes. At the graphene–metal interface, we demonstrate that built-in electric fields give rise to a photocurrent with a full-width-half-maximum of ~4 ps and that a photothermoelectric effect generates a current with a decay time of ~130 ps. Furthermore, we show that, in optically pumped graphene, electromagnetic radiation up to 1 THz is generated. Our results may prove essential to build graphene-based ultrafast photodetectors, photovoltaic cells and terahertz sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonhard Prechtel & Li Song & Dieter Schuh & Pulickel Ajayan & Werner Wegscheider & Alexander W. Holleitner, 2012. "Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1656
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1656
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1656
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms1656?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hai Hu & Renwen Yu & Hanchao Teng & Debo Hu & Na Chen & Yunpeng Qu & Xiaoxia Yang & Xinzhong Chen & A. S. McLeod & Pablo Alonso-González & Xiangdong Guo & Chi Li & Ziheng Yao & Zhenjun Li & Jianing Ch, 2022. "Active control of micrometer plasmon propagation in suspended graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Dehui Zhang & Zhen Xu & Gong Cheng & Zhe Liu & Audrey Rose Gutierrez & Wenzhe Zang & Theodore B. Norris & Zhaohui Zhong, 2022. "Strongly enhanced THz generation enabled by a graphene hot-carrier fast lane," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1656. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.