Two-dimensional tellurium-based diodes for RF applications

The research of two-dimensional (2D) Tellurium (Te) or tellurene is thriving to address current challenges in emerging thin-film electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, the study of 2D-Te-based devices for high-frequency applications is still lacking in the literature. This work presents a comprehensive study of two types of radio frequency (RF) diodes based on 2D-Te flakes and exploits their distinct properties in two RF applications. First, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is employed as a nonlinear device in a passive RF mixer, where the achieved conversion loss at 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz is as low as 24 dB and 29 dB, respectively. Then, a metal-semiconductor (MS) diode is tested as a zero-bias millimeter-wave power detector and reaches an outstanding linear-in-dB dynamic range over 40 dB, while having voltage responsivities as high as 257 V ⋅ W−1 at 1 GHz (up to 1 V detected output voltage) and 47 V ⋅ W−1 at 2.5 GHz (up to 0.26 V detected output voltage). These results show superior performance compared to other 2D material-based devices in a much more mature technological phase. Thus, the authors believe that this work demonstrates the potential of 2D-Te as a promising material for devices in emerging high-frequency electronics.MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTRGerman Research Foundation (DFG) under the projects GLECS2 (No. 653408)MOSTFLEX (653414),The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) (RGPIN-2017-05810 and ALLRP 577611-22)The European Commission under the Horizon 2020 projects Graphene Flagship (No. 785219 and 881603)PAIDI 2020 and European Social Fund Operational Programme 2014-2020 no. 20804Ministerio de UniversidadesGrant no. CAS21/ 00483Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF)Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD)Simon Fraser Universit