Temperature-Tunable Circularly Polarized Light Detector Based on a Nodal-Line Semimetal ZrSiSe

Circularly polarized light (CPL) detection is essential in diverse fields, including drug screening, quantum optics, and optical communications. Although chiral plasmonic metastructures and organic chiral molecules have been proposed to address the challenges of miniaturization and integration for conventional optical systems by reducing the reliance on multiple optical elements, they also suffer from sophisticated fabrication processes, spectral range limitations, and compatibility challenges. Here, we demonstrate a temperature-tunable CPL photodetector using a nodal-line semimetal ZrSiSe without any external chiral metastructures or organic molecules, achieving a responsivity of 39.87 μA/W. Moreover, we analyze the origin of the inherent helicity-dependent photoresponse arising from the nontrivial local Berry curvature of the quantum wave function. The induced photocurrent shifts as the temperature varies, which can be attributed to the coeffect of temperature-induced Lifshitz transitions and changes in thermal gradients. This research introduces a photonic platform for miniaturized and integrated CPL photodetection.