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Ultrathin MXene assemblies approach the intrinsic absorption limit in the 0.5–10 THz band

Nature Photonics volume 17, pages 622–628 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Broadband and efficient terahertz absorbing films are crucial to high-performance terahertz detectors, which are in demand for next-generation wireless communications, astronomy, security screening, medical imaging and so on. Recent studies reported a series of two-dimensional materials for enhanced light absorption in terahertz waves, such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides and topological insulators, among others. However, it is still challenging to achieve the intrinsic thin-film absorption limit (50%) across the whole ultrabroad terahertz band. Here we demonstrate that ultrathin 10.2-nm-thick (~λ/30,000) Ti3C2Tx MXene assemblies can reach the intrinsic thin-film absorption limit across the entire 0.5–10 THz band. Such intriguing phenomena are attributed to the highly concentrated free electrons (~1021 cm−3), short relaxation time (~10 fs) and unique intra- and interflake (hopping) electron transport properties in Ti3C2Tx MXenes. Our results are validated by alternating current impedance theory using the Drude–Smith model, rather than classic direct current impedance matching. We believe that our findings will stimulate more studies of broadband terahertz technologies with MXenes and beyond, providing a route to developing compact, supercontinuum terahertz optoelectronic or photothermoelectric devices.

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Fig. 1: Fabrication, characterization and absorption measurements of Ti3C2Tx MXene assemblies.
Fig. 2: Terahertz absorption and conductivity of Ti3C2Tx MXene assemblies.
Fig. 3: Mechanism of ultrabroadband terahertz absorption in Ti3C2Tx assemblies.

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Data availability

The experimental dataset and its analysis are provided within the article and its Supplementary Information, and the data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant numbers 2017YFA0701000 and 2020YFA0714001), the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 61988102, 61921002, 62071108 and 62235004), the Outstanding Scholarship Foundation of UESTC (grant number A1098531023601243), the Sichuan Science and Technology Support Program (grant number 2021JDTD0026), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (grant numbers 2022NSFSC0513, 2022NSFSC0514, 2023NSFC0437 and 2023NSFSC0437), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant numbers ZYGX2020ZB007 and ZYGX2020J003), the fund of Key Laboratory of THz Technology, Ministry of Education, China, the Science and Engineering Research Council of A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) Singapore (grant number M22L1b0110) and the NRF, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, under the Competitive Research Program Award (grant number NRF-CRP26-2021-0063). We thank W. Xie, S. Ding and L. Cheng for fruitful discussions.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Tao Zhao, Peiyao Xie, Hujie Wan, Tianpeng Ding.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated Devices, School of Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Tao Zhao, Hujie Wan, Tianpeng Ding, Qing Zhang, Qiye Wen & Xu Xiao

  2. School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Tao Zhao, Peiyao Xie, Hujie Wan, Jinlin Xie, Yanyu Wei, Yubin Gong, Qiye Wen & Min Hu

  3. Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen, China

    Tao Zhao

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Mengqi Liu & Cheng-Wei Qiu

  5. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, MOE Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Mengqi Liu

  6. GBA branch of Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Enen Li, Xuequan Chen & Tianwu Wang

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Contributions

X.X. and C.-W.Q. supervised the work. T.Z., P.X., H.W. and T.D. fabricated the samples and performed the measurements. E.L., X.C. and T.W. performed the air plasma-based THz-TDS measurements. T.Z., P.X., H.W., T.D., C.-W.Q. and X.X. analysed the data with the help of J.X., Q.Z., Y.W., Y.G., Q.W. and M.H. T.Z., M.L., C.-W.Q. and X.X. wrote the paper with input from all co-authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cheng-Wei Qiu or Xu Xiao.

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Nature Photonics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–24, Tables 1–3, Methods and References.

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Zhao, T., Xie, P., Wan, H. et al. Ultrathin MXene assemblies approach the intrinsic absorption limit in the 0.5–10 THz band. Nat. Photon. 17, 622–628 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01197-x

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