Ultrasensitive Molybdenum-based Image Sensor

(EPFL, June 26, 2013)

Molybdenite (MoS2) could replace silicon in the fabrication of photographic image sensors. The material's amazing semi-conducting properties were discovered in 2011 by an EPFL team which has been exploring its potential in various technological applications ever since. This promising material has now been integrated in a prototype of an image sensor. This sensor, described in an article appearing in Nature Nanotechnology, has five times the light sensitivity of current technology. This level of sensitivity would open up the huge area of low-light or night photography, without resorting to “noise”-generating amplification techniques, slowing down the shutter speed or using a flash.