Graphene terahertz uncooled bolometers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a graphene-based terahertz uncooled bolometer that leverages graphene layers and nanoribbons to detect THz radiation with high responsivity, surpassing traditional semiconductor bolometers.

Contribution

It proposes a novel graphene nanoribbon-based bolometer design and models its performance, demonstrating superior responsivity compared to existing hot-electron bolometers.

Findings

The proposed bolometer can achieve high responsivity to THz radiation.

Device modeling shows potential to outperform traditional semiconductor bolometers.

Responsivity depends on GNR energy gap, voltage, and frequency.

Abstract

We propose the concept of a terahertz (THz) uncooled bolometer based on n-type and p-type graphene layers (GLs), constituting the absorbing regions, connected by an array of undoped graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). The GLs absorb the THz radiation with the GNR array playing the role of the barrier region (resulting in nGL-GNR-pGL bolometer). The absorption of the incident THz radiation in the GL n- and p- regions leads to variations of the effective temperature of electrons and holes and of their Fermi energy resulting in the variation of the current through the GNRs. Using the proposed device model, we calculate the dark current and the bolometer responsivity as functions of the GNR energy gap, applied voltage, and the THz frequency. We demonstrate that the proposed bolometer can surpass the hot-electron bolometers using traditional semiconductor heterostructures.