Low Dark Current, High Responsivity, and Self-Powered MoTe2 Photodetector Integrated With a Thin Film Lithium Niobate Waveguide

Thin film lithium niobate is one of the most crucial platforms in the next generation of integrated optoelectronics because of its ability to integrate tight optical confinement, low optical loss, and active optical functions. A current challenge in the field of thin film lithium niobate photonics is the development of high-performance photodetectors to achieve multifunctional photonic integrated circuits. This study introduces a high-performance MoTe₂ photodetector integrated on a thin film lithium niobate waveguide. The photodetector achieves the lowest dark current and highest on/off ratio among waveguide-integrated photodetectors on a thin film lithium niobate platform. Due to a slight asymmetry in the behavior of the two electrode contacts of the device, the photodetector also achieves self-driven. At zero bias and a wavelength of 1310 nm, a dark current of ≈20 pA, and an on/off ratio exceeding 10⁵ are achieved. At a bias voltage of 1 V, the measured dark current, responsivity, and on/off ratio are 1.13 nA, 309 mA/W, and 1.8 × 10⁴, respectively. Notably, the device exhibits fast rise and fall times of 9.3 and 13.5 µs, respectively, accompanied by a high detectivity of 2.58 × 10¹¹ W⁻¹.