Long wave infrared (LWIR) photodetectors based on nano-optics and two-dimensional materials
Abstract
Abstract: Long wave infrared (LWIR) photodetectors based on nano-optics and two-dimensional materials Principal Investigator: Professor Kenneth Crozier, the University of Melbourne Long-wave infrared radiation is by nature characterized by low photon energy and is thus detected by semiconductor materials with small band gaps. At room temperature, charge carriers are thermally generated in such materials at very high rates. As a result LWIR photodetectors operated at room temperature are very noisy. Cooling the detector mitigates this, yet adds significantly to size, weight, and power (SWaP) as well as cost. This has prompted research into room temperature LWIR detectors. Much of this work has concerned epitaxial materials (e.g. mercury cadmium telluride) that are fundamentally incompatible with silicon technology. Here, we propose to harness recent breakthroughs in nano-optics and in two dimensional materials toward the goal of wafer-scale detectors for high-performance, large-format and low-cost LWIR imaging at room temperature. The program we propose has two overarching themes. The first theme is that of extreme light concentration. We propose to develop photodetector pixels that employ nanostructures for extreme light concentration, thereby enabling the volume of photodetector material (and therefore the generation-recombination noise) to be reduced by orders of magnitude. The second theme of our program is that of LWIR photodetectors with extreme volume reduction. We will investigate largely unexplored, low bandgap two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors for LWIR detection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 17, 2016
- Source ID
- HR00111610004
Entities
People
- Kenneth B Crozier
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- University of Melbourne