TaIrTe₄ photodetectors show promise for sensitive room-temperature THz sensing

The paper in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-025-01397-z

> We fabricated Har bar geometry sensing devices using atomically thin TaIrTe₄,

I've never heard of a "Har bar" not its geometry, but apparently neither has Google.

GPT-4o did hear of a "Hall bar geometry" though and suggested it's a typo. That one does return results on Google as well, and makes sense in context too.

Yeah, there's this line in the original paper:

> Accordingly, we measured the nonlinear Hall transport in a few-layer sample with a Hall bar device geometry at room temperature

Tantalum, iridium, and tellurium? How expensive is this stuff?

These materials are pretty expensive. Tellurium is currently about $86/kg, tantalum $430/kg, and iridium $140,000/kg:

https://www.dailymetalprice.com/metalpricecharts.php?c=ir&u=...

https://www.metal.com/en/markets/20

But it's a "2d material" so it only takes a tiny atomically thin quantity of these elements to build a detector:

https://news.columbia.edu/news/what-are-2d-materials-and-why...

Is this good for making tricorders? ‘Cause if it ain’t good for making tricorders I don’t give a rats a&&.

But seriously, THz imaging ins going to be wild.