Hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene electrodes for near-lossless 2D semiconductor phase modulators

Shi Guo; Sung-Gyu Lee; Xiangxin Gong; Lalit Singh; Rui Yu; Ahmad Sholehin Bin Juperi; Seoungbum Lim; Yuhui Yang; Jinpeng Huo; Jeremy Leong; Ce Liang; Hyojin Seung; Yangchen He; Daniel Rhodes; Min Sup Choi; Takashi Taniguchi; Kenji Watanabe; Wonkeun Chang; Beng Kang Tay; Luigi Ranno; Juejun Hu; Qingyun Wu; Lay Kee Ang; Jia Xu Brian Sia; Sang Hoon Chae

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02058-8

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Hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene electrodes for near-lossless 2D semiconductor phase modulators

Original Articles

- Hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene electrodes for near-lossless 2D semiconductor phase modulators
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 1, Pages: 341-350(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
  2.CNRS-International-NTU-Thales Research Alliance (CINTRA), Singapore, Singapore
  3.Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  4.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
  5.Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
  6.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
  7.Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
  8.Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
  9.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
  10.Science, Mathematics and technology, Singapore University of technology and design, Singapore, Singapore
  11.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
- Author bio：
  
  Jia Xu Brian Sia (jiaxubrian.sia@ntu.edu.sg)
  Sang Hoon Chae (sanghoon.chae@ntu.edu.sg)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02058-8
  CLC：
- Received：09 April 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-09-11，
  
  Accepted：16 September 2025，
  
  Published Online：03 January 2026，
  
  Published：31 January 2026
- Accepted：
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Guo, S. et al. Hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene electrodes for near-lossless 2D semiconductor phase modulators. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 341-350 (2026).
DOI：

Guo, S. et al. Hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene electrodes for near-lossless 2D semiconductor phase modulators. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 341-350 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02058-8.

摘要

Abstract

Optical phase modulators are critical components in integrated photonics

but conventional designs suffer from a trade-off between modulation efficiency and optical loss. Two-dimensional materials like graphene offer strong electro-optic effects

yet their high optical absorption at telecom wavelengths leads to significant insertion losses. Although monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) provide exceptional telecom-band transparency for low-loss electro-refractive response

their practical implementation in phase modulators requires top electrodes to enable vertical electric field tuning

which typically introduces parasitic absorption. Here

we address this challenge by developing hybrid tungsten oxyselenide/graphene (TOS/Gr) electrodes that minimize optical loss while enabling efficient phase modulation in TMD-based devices. The UV-ozone-converted TOS (from WSe

) acts as a heavy p-type dopant for graphene

mak

ing the graphene transparent in the NIR region while enhancing its conductivity. Our complete device integrates a hybrid TOS/graphene transparent electrode with a hexagonal boron nitride dielectric spacer and monolayer WS

electro-optic material on a SiN microring platform. This achieves a high modulation efficiency of 0.202 V·cm while maintaining an exceptionally low extinction ratio change of just 0.08 dB

demonstrating superior performance compared to modulators employing conventional electrodes. Our breakthrough in near-lossless phase modulation opens new possibilities for energy-efficient optical communications

photonic computing

and fault-tolerant quantum networks.

关键词

Keywords

references

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