On March 5, an important research paper entitled High-Performance Terahertz Modulators Induced by Substrate Field in Te-Based All-2D Heterojunctions was published in the Light: Science & Applications. The first unit is Capital Normal University (CNU); the corresponding author is Prof. Zhou Qingli from the Department of Physics of CNU; the co-corresponding author is Ge Chen, a researcher from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and the first author is Zhang Pujing, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics, CNU. The co-authors of the paper include Academician Yang Guozhen, Academician Jin Kuijuan, and Associate Researcher Zhang Qinghua from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Gu Lin from Tsinghua University, and Professor Zhang Liangliang, Professor Zhang Cunlin, and Associate Professor Li Menglei from the Department of Physics, CNU.

This paper introduces a high-performance terahertz modulator in Te nanofilm-based all-2D heterojunctions, which by flexibly adjusting materials and its stacking manner, has broken through the bottleneck of incompatibility between the modulation depth and speed in existing terahertz modulators, improved the performance of the device to a level that is expected to be applied in practical applications. Through research, they have had a more comprehensive understanding of the internal mechanism of the non-equilibrium carrier dynamics induced by substrate field in all-2D heterojunctions, laid a research foundation for high-performance terahertz modulators, provided effective and feasible design guidance strategies, and promoted the application of nanomaterials in the field of terahertz optoelectronic devices.

Original text link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01393-6