Manufacturing Nontoxic, Inexpensive, and High-Performance Infrared Detectors

Infrared detectors convert invisible electromagnetic radiation to measurable physical quantities and are essential for communications, remote sensing, and space exploration. Current detectors, such as those based on InGaAs, InAs, GaAs, HgCdTe, and InSb, exhibit excellent performance in the mid and far-infrared. However, they use materials containing toxic elements or must operate at liquid nitrogen temperature, an expensive condition.

Cheng et al. developed a near-infrared photodetector based on the 1D chain compound (TaSe₄)₂I, which has unique electronic and optical properties due to its high surface area ratio and small size. It is also nontoxic and operates at room temperature.

The team prepared (TaSe₄)₂I nanowires with the scotch-tape mechanical exfoliation method. Bulk crystals were placed on the sticky side of the tape, and thin samples of material were obtained by repeatedly folding and tearing the tape away from the crystal.

The time-varying photoresponse was tested by periodically shining a laser on the detector. The deviation during the cycle was small, indicating good reversibility and stability in the detector.

“The rising time of the (TaSe₄)₂I photodetector under the illumination of visible light is about 1.09 seconds,” said author Weike Wang. “That is superior to some other materials, like ReS₂, graphene-quantum dots, and single-layer MoS₂ photodetectors.”

The researchers plan to fabricate a linear-polarization-sensitive photodetector based on (TaSe₄)₂I, which they expect to further the development of polarized light detectors.

Source: “High-performance near-infrared photodetector based on quasi one-dimensional layered (TaSe₄)₂I,” by Jiaxin Cheng, Chao An, Liang Li, Lijie Chen, Yana Cui, Qijie Yan, Yanling Yin, Weichang Zhou, Yuehua Peng, Weike Wang, and Dongsheng Tang, Applied Physics Letters (2021). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0064641 .