IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59006-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ultra-weak infrared light detection based on steep-slope phototransistors

Author

Listed:
  • Jiadong Mei

    (Nanjing University)

  • Junzhuan Wang

    (Nanjing University)

  • Xuetao Gan

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University)

  • Xiaomu Wang

    (Nanjing University
    Beijing Institute of Technology)

Abstract

A photodetector’s sensitivity is conventionally quantified by specific detectivity, which balances responsivity and noise. However, we reveal that the turn-on threshold power is fundamentally governed by photo-carrier injection rather than detectivity. In conventional phototransistors/diodes, incident light cannot generate photocurrent via thermionic injection until its intensity saturates the surface potential. To overcome this limit, we design a photo-tunneling transistor with a partially dual-gated black phosphorus channel. This device breaks the injection barrier, achieving a temperature-independent subthreshold swing of ~50 mV/dec up to 250 K and reducing the threshold power by over an order of magnitude. At 80 K, it detects mid-wave infrared light with a minimum power of ~35 pW, outperforming conventional phototransistors with higher detectivity by ~30-fold. Our work redefines the sensitivity criteria for photodetectors and highlights the potential of steep-slope transistors in low-power optoelectronics, offering a pathway to ultrasensitive infrared sensing and imaging technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiadong Mei & Junzhuan Wang & Xuetao Gan & Xiaomu Wang, 2025. "Ultra-weak infrared light detection based on steep-slope phototransistors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59006-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59006-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59006-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59006-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebastián Castilla & Ioannis Vangelidis & Varun-Varma Pusapati & Jordan Goldstein & Marta Autore & Tetiana Slipchenko & Khannan Rajendran & Seyoon Kim & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Luis Martí, 2020. "Plasmonic antenna coupling to hyperbolic phonon-polaritons for sensitive and fast mid-infrared photodetection with graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Luqi Tu & Rongrong Cao & Xudong Wang & Yan Chen & Shuaiqin Wu & Fang Wang & Zhen Wang & Hong Shen & Tie Lin & Peng Zhou & Xiangjian Meng & Weida Hu & Qi Liu & Jianlu Wang & Ming Liu & Junhao Chu, 2020. "Ultrasensitive negative capacitance phototransistors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Jianfeng Wu & Jialin Zhang & Ruiqi Jiang & Hao Wu & Shouheng Chen & Xinlei Zhang & Wenhui Wang & Yuanfang Yu & Qiang Fu & Rui Lin & Yueying Cui & Tao Zhou & Zhenliang Hu & Dongyang Wan & Xiaolong Chen, 2025. "High-sensitivity, high-speed, broadband mid-infrared photodetector enabled by a van der Waals heterostructure with a vertical transport channel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Binjie Zheng & Junzhuan Wang & Qianghua Wang & Xin Su & Tianye Huang & Songlin Li & Fengqiu Wang & Yi Shi & Xiaomu Wang, 2022. "Quantum criticality of excitonic Mott metal-insulator transitions in black phosphorus," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J. Álvarez-Cuervo & M. Obst & S. Dixit & G. Carini & A. I. F. Tresguerres-Mata & C. Lanza & E. Terán-García & G. Álvarez-Pérez & L. F. Álvarez-Tomillo & K. Diaz-Granados & R. Kowalski & A. S. Senerath, 2024. "Unidirectional ray polaritons in twisted asymmetric stacks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Hongwei Wang & Anshuman Kumar & Siyuan Dai & Xiao Lin & Zubin Jacob & Sang-Hyun Oh & Vinod Menon & Evgenii Narimanov & Young Duck Kim & Jian-Ping Wang & Phaedon Avouris & Luis Martin Moreno & Joshua C, 2024. "Planar hyperbolic polaritons in 2D van der Waals materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Mingjin Dai & Chongwu Wang & Bo Qiang & Yuhao Jin & Ming Ye & Fakun Wang & Fangyuan Sun & Xuran Zhang & Yu Luo & Qi Jie Wang, 2023. "Long-wave infrared photothermoelectric detectors with ultrahigh polarization sensitivity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Sebastián Castilla & Hitesh Agarwal & Ioannis Vangelidis & Yuliy V. Bludov & David Alcaraz Iranzo & Adrià Grabulosa & Matteo Ceccanti & Mikhail I. Vasilevskiy & Roshan Krishna Kumar & Eli Janzen & Jam, 2024. "Electrical spectroscopy of polaritonic nanoresonators," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Qingyi Zhang & Ning Li & Tao Zhang & Dianmeng Dong & Yongtao Yang & Yuehui Wang & Zhengang Dong & Jiaying Shen & Tianhong Zhou & Yuanlin Liang & Weihua Tang & Zhenping Wu & Yang Zhang & Jianhua Hao, 2023. "Enhanced gain and detectivity of unipolar barrier solar blind avalanche photodetector via lattice and band engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Andrei Bylinkin & Sebastián Castilla & Tetiana M. Slipchenko & Kateryna Domina & Francesco Calavalle & Varun-Varma Pusapati & Marta Autore & Fèlix Casanova & Luis E. Hueso & Luis Martín-Moreno & Alexe, 2024. "On-chip phonon-enhanced IR near-field detection of molecular vibrations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Jiadong Mei & Yue Wang & Ruixiang Fei & Junzhuan Wang & Xuetao Gan & Bo Liu & Xiaomu Wang, 2025. "Evidence for excitonic condensation and superfluidity in black phosphorus," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Stefan M. Koepfli & Michael Baumann & Robin Gadola & Shadi Nashashibi & Yesim Koyaz & Daniel Rieben & Arif Can Güngör & Michael Doderer & Killian Keller & Yuriy Fedoryshyn & Juerg Leuthold, 2024. "Controlling photothermoelectric directional photocurrents in graphene with over 400 GHz bandwidth," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59006-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.