The rapid development of nanophotonic technologies has put forward higher requirements for optoelectronic devices, including ultra-small footprints, high-speed operation, high efficiency, and low power consumption. Optoelectronics based on emerging materials can provide the material framework that can keep pace with future technological demands. Here we will share our latest innovations and device demonstrations of using low-dimensional materials towards discovering high-performance photodetector and electro-optic modulator performances. We will share the concept of strainoptronics enabling to engineer a plurality of material properties (bandgap, workfunction, mobility) and show how a Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDC)-based efficient photodetector can be realized using MoS2 on a Silicon photonic platform. Furthermore, using scaling-length-theory, we show our roadmap and results of high gain-bandwidth product photodetectors using a metal slot atop a silicon photonic waveguide towards optimizing the carrier-lifetime to transit time ratio. These devices were enabled by a novel 3D-like 2D material transfer system, which also enabled us to demonstrate a 2D material PN junction photodetector operating at zero bias, thus leading to extremely low dark currents and hence very efficient noise-equivalent powers. Finally, we show our latest work on ITO-thin film electro-optic modulators with 40 GHz 3dB roll-off, requiring just 200 meV of the drive voltage. Further development of the modulator platform shows the potential of a 100 GHz fast MZI modulator with a footprint that is 1,000 more compact than standard Silicon photonics and 10,000 more compact compared to Lithium Niobite.
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