Optoelectronic mixing with high-frequency graphene transistors

A. Montanaro , W. Wei (1) , D. de Fazio (2) , U. Sassi (2) , G. Soavi , P. Aversa (3) , A. Ferrari , H. Happy (1, 4) , P. Legagneux (5) , Emiliano Pallecchi (4, 1)

1 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
2 Cambridge Graphene Centre (Cambridge, UK)
3 LSI - Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés - Irradiated Solids Laboratory
4 CARBON - IEMN - Carbon - IEMN
5 ULaval - Université Laval [Québec]

Abstract Graphene is ideally suited for optoelectronics. It offers absorption at telecom wavelengths, high-frequency operation and CMOS-compatibility. We show how high speed optoelectronic mixing can be achieved with high frequency (~20 GHz bandwidth) graphene field effect transistors (GFETs). These devices mix an electrical signal injected into the GFET gate and a modulated optical signal onto a single layer graphene (SLG) channel. The photodetection mechanism and the resulting photocurrent sign depend on the SLG Fermi level ( E F ). At low E F (<130 meV), a positive photocurrent is generated, while at large E F (>130 meV), a negative photobolometric current appears. This allows our devices to operate up to at least 67 GHz. Our results pave the way for GFETs optoelectronic mixers for mm-wave applications, such as telecommunications and radio/light detection and ranging (RADAR/LIDARs.)

Mots clés: GFET; telecom wavelengths; mm-wave; optoelectronic mixing; graphene; optoelectronics

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

A. Montanaro, W. Wei, D. de Fazio, U. Sassi, G. Soavi, et al.. Optoelectronic mixing with high-frequency graphene transistors. Nature Communications, 2021, 12 (1), pp.2728. ⟨10.1038/s41467-021-22943-1⟩. ⟨hal-03259559⟩