Jaehoon Ji and his team developed a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayer semiconductor device combined with an azobenzene (Azo) compound in a study published in Science Advances. The research, as reported by Princeton University, showed that visible and UV light enabled the Azo compound to alter the material’s carrier density and electro-optical properties. It was stated that this effect could change the behavior of n- and p-type FETs. The study offers a proof of concept for developing programmable circuits and sensors that respond to external factors such as light.
Why it matters
This approach indicates that the function of a semiconductor component need not remain limited to fixed manufacturing characteristics and can instead be adjusted with externally applied light. The ability to affect both n- and p-type FET behavior in the same material is relevant to the idea of controlling different functions in circuit design with light. The connection between carrier density and electro-optical properties opens up a new area of research into how sensors convert environmental stimuli into electronic signals. However, since the study is a proof of concept, the text leaves open how this effect could be adapted to real circuit and sensor architectures.