Tuesday, 31 January, 2012

Ultra-fast photodetector and terahertz generator

New applications for graphene

Extremely thin, more stable than steel and widely applicable: the material graphene is full of interesting properties. As such, it is currently the shining star among the electric conductors. Photodetectors made with graphene can process and conduct both light signals and electric signals extremely fast. Upon optical stimulation, graphene generates a photocurrent within picoseconds (0,000 000 000 001 second). Until now, none of the available methods were fast enough to measure these processes in graphene. Professor Alexander Holleitner and Dr. Leonhard Prechtel, scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), have now developed a method to measure the temporal dynamics of this photo current.

Press information TUM (english)
Presseinformation der TUM (deutsch)
Publication "Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended graphene"