High-performance fiber-integrated multifunctional graphene-optoelectronic device with photoelectric detection and optic-phase modulation

Abstract

In graphene-based optoelectronic devices, the ultraweak interaction between a light and monolayer graphene leads to low optical absorption and low responsivity for the photodetectors and relative high half-wave voltage for the phase modulator. Here, an integration of the monolayer graphene onto the side-polished optical fiber is demonstrated, which is capable of providing a cost-effective strategy to enhance the light–graphene interaction, allowing us to obtain a highly efficient optical absorption in graphene and achieve multifunctions: photodetection and optical phase modulation. As a photodetector, the device has ultrahigh responsivity ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m1"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1.5</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mtext> </mml:mtext> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">A</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">W</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) and high external quantum efficiency ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m2"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo form="prefix">&gt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mn>9</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mi>%</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ). Additionally, the polybutadiene/polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) film on the graphene can render the device an optical phase modulator through the large thermo-optic effect of the PMMA. As a phase modulator, the device has a relatively low half-wave voltage of 3 V with a 16 dB extinction ratio in Mach–Zehnder interferometer configuration.