Fundamental Limits of Few-Layer NbSe2 Microbolometers at Terahertz Frequencies

Fundamental Limits of Few-Layer NbSe2 Microbolometers at Terahertz Frequencies

Nano Letters

10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04493

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04493

Kirill Shein, Ekaterina Zharkova, Mikhail Kashchenko, Anna Kolbatova, Anastasia Lyubchak, Leonid Elesin, Ekaterina Nguyen, Alexander Semenov, Ilya Charaev, Andreas Schilling, Gregory Goltsman, Kostya S. Novoselov, Igor Gayduchenko, Denis A. Bandurin

12 February 2024

Shein, K., Zharkova, E., Kashchenko, M., Kolbatova, A., Lyubchak, A., Elesin, L., Nguyen, E., Semenov, A., Charaev, I., Schilling, A., Goltsman, G., Novoselov, K. S., Gayduchenko, I., & Bandurin, D. A. (2024). Fundamental Limits of Few-Layer NbSe2 Microbolometers at Terahertz Frequencies. Nano Letters, 24(7), 2282–2288. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04493

The rapid development of infrared spectroscopy, observational astronomy, and scanning near-field microscopy has been enabled by the emergence of sensitive mid- and far-infrared photodetectors. Superconducting hot-electron bolometers (HEBs), known for their exceptional signal-to-noise ratio and fast photoresponse, play a crucial role in these applications. While superconducting HEBs are traditionally crafted from sputtered thin films such as NbN, the potential of layered van der Waals (vdW) superconductors is untapped at THz frequencies. Here, we introduce superconducting HEBs made from few-layer NbSe2 microwires. By improving the interface between NbSe2 and metal leads, we overcome impedance mismatch with RF readout, enabling large responsivity THz detection (0.13 to 2.5 THz) with a minimal noise equivalent power of 7 pW/ H z and nanosecond-range response time. Our work highlights NbSe2 as a promising platform for HEB technology and presents a reliable vdW assembly protocol for custom bolometer production.

Publisher Copyright

This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research - Young Individual Research Grant
Grant Reference no. : M22K3c0106

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore - Research Centre of Excellence award, to the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, I-FIM
Grant Reference no. : EDUNC-33-18-279- V12

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Nano Letters, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04493

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