Due to the fact that the energy of terahertz photons is similar to that of room-temperature thermal energy, the development of uncooled photonic detectors in this band faces huge challenges. Although traditional thermal detectors are not limited by the band gap and can achieve wide-spectrum detection at room temperature, their slow response speed and low sensitivity have restricted their application range. To address the aforementioned issues, the project team innovatively constructed a room-temperature van der Waals semi-metallic PtSe2 terahertz detector based on the photothermal-electric effect of hot carriers. Research has found that the photothermal-electric effect mediated by thermal carriers at the metal-semi-metal interface dominates the generation of fast terahertz responses. At room temperature and in zero-bias mode, this device exhibits A high responsivity of 0.62 A/W, a low-noise equivalent power of 19.6 pW/Hz1/2, and a fast response of 4.5 ns in the terahertz band. This work will help guide the development of room-temperature universal terahertz detectors with high sensitivity, ultra-wideband and fast response characteristics, and has important application prospects in the next-generation high-performance terahertz sensing technology and high-speed terahertz communication technology fields.
