AlGaN‐based Schottky barrier photodiodes, aimed to monitor the solar UV radiation, have been fabricated and characterized. AlGaN semiconductor layers were grown by metal‐organic vapor phase epitaxy on sapphire substrates, and the Al mole fraction was varied between zero and 0.35. The evolution of the characteristics of these UV detectors with the Al content is presented. Schottky barrier Al x Ga l−x N photodetectors show a very fast response that is independent of the optical power, and their visible rejection ratio is higher than 10 3 . Al 0.2 Ga 0.8 N Schottky barriers are very good candidates for monitoring the UV‐B band. It is also reported that by using the proper Al mole fraction, the erythema‐weighted action of the solar UV radiation can be directly determined by AlGaN photodiodes, without any filter, for the first time.
Surface plasmon polaritons in graphene can enhance the performance of mid-infrared spectroscopy, which is key for the study of both the composition and the conformation of organic molecules via their vibrational resonances. In this paper, a plasmonic biosensor using a graphene-based van der Waals heterostructure on a piezoelectric substrate is theoretically demonstrated, where far-field light is coupled to surface plasmon-phonon polaritons (SPPPs) through a surface acoustic wave (SAW). The SAW creates an electrically-controlled virtual diffraction grating, suppressing the need for patterning the 2D materials, that limits the polariton lifetime, and enabling differential measurement schemes, which increase the signal-to-noise ratio and allow a quick commutation between reference and sample signals. A transfer matrix method has been used for simulating the SPPPs propagating in the system, which are electrically tuned to interact with the vibrational resonances of the analytes. Furthermore, the analysis of the sensor response with a coupled oscillators model has proven its capability of fingerprinting ultrathin biolayers, even when the interaction is too weak to induce a Fano interference pattern, with a sensitivity down to the monolayer limit, as tested with a protein bilayer or a peptide monolayer. The proposed device paves the way for the development of advanced SAW-assisted lab-on-chip systems combining the existing SAW-mediated physical sensing and microfluidic functionalities with the chemical fingerprinting capability of this novel SAW-driven plasmonic approach.
Abstract In most applications based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene, the transfer from the growth to the target substrate is a critical step for the final device performance. Manual procedures are time consuming and depend on handling skills, whereas existing automatic roll-to-roll methods work well for flexible substrates but tend to induce mechanical damage in rigid ones. A new system that automatically transfers CVD graphene to an arbitrary target substrate has been developed. The process is based on the all-fluidic manipulation of the graphene to avoid mechanical damage, strain and contamination and on the combination of capillary action and electrostatic repulsion between the graphene and its container to ensure a centered sample on top of the target substrate. The improved carrier mobility and yield of the automatically transferred graphene, as compared to that manually transferred, is demonstrated by the optical and electrical characterization of field-effect transistors fabricated on both materials. In particular, 70% higher mobility values, with a 30% decrease in the unintentional doping and a 10% strain reduction are achieved. The system has been developed for lab-scale transfer and proved to be scalable for industrial applications.
In this perspective, the recent trends in graphene supercapacitor research are shown, from the use of pseudocapacitor elements to enhance the performance of large-area electrodes, to its miniaturization driven by versatile fabrication techniques.