Room Temperature Graphene Mid-Infrared Bolometer with a Broad Operational Wavelength Range

The past decade has witnessed the realization of numerous different types of graphene photodetectors with a strong focus on the visible and near-infrared spectral range, in which various high-performance photodetectors exist based on traditional materials such as silicon and III-V compound semiconductors. However, high-speed mid-infrared photodetection at room temperature is still an unsolved challenge, despite its importance in applications such as security, sensing, and imaging. Here we address this challenge by demonstrating that high-quality graphene is an ideal high-speed bolometric material for the less-explored yet critical mid-infrared photodetection at room temperature, due to its broadband absorption, small heat capacity, and remarkably large temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of up to around 1% per Kelvin, which is comparable to that of commercial bolometric materials. We demonstrate a device based on graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibiting decent extrinsic responsivities of 5.1-1.4 mA/W in the 3.4-12 mu m wavelength range at room temperature, and further predict a detection bandwidth of at least 47 MHz. Our demonstration lays the foundations for graphene high-speed mid-infrared technologies.