Ultra-thin infrared metamaterial detector for multicolor imaging applications.

TitleUltra-thin infrared metamaterial detector for multicolor imaging applications.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsJA Montoya, Z-B Tian, S Krishna, and WJ Padilla
JournalOptics express
Volume25
Issue19
Start Page23343
Pagination23343 - 23355
Date Published09/2017
Abstract

The next generation of infrared imaging systems requires control of fundamental electromagnetic processes - absorption, polarization, spectral bandwidth - at the pixel level to acquire desirable information about the environment with low system latency. Metamaterial absorbers have sparked interest in the infrared imaging community for their ability to enhance absorption of incoming radiation with color, polarization and/or phase information. However, most metamaterial-based sensors fail to focus incoming radiation into the active region of a ultra-thin detecting element, thus achieving poor detection metrics. Here our multifunctional metamaterial absorber is directly integrated with a novel mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) detector with an ultra-thin (~λ/15) InAs/GaSb Type-II superlattice (T2SL) interband cascade detector. The deep sub-wavelength metamaterial detector architecture proposed and demonstrated here, thus significantly improves the detection quantum efficiency (QE) and absorption of incoming radiation in a regime typically dominated by Fabry-Perot etalons. Our work evinces the ability of multifunctional metamaterials to realize efficient wavelength selective detection across the infrared spectrum for enhanced multispectral infrared imaging applications.

DOI10.1364/oe.25.023343
Short TitleOptics express