Enhancing the Performance of Commercial Infrared Detectors by Surface Plasmons

Abstract

The feasibility to improve the response of quantum type (photonic) infrared (IR) detectors by applying surface plasmons is investigated. The HgCdTe material system is used as the detector platform of interest for which selected plasmonic structures and materials are applied and the influence studied by full-fielded electromagnetic simulations. It is shown that even for the several-micrometers-thick detector structures, similar to the commercial ones, broadband absorption enhancements of 30–40% can be achieved. The results suggest that improved, or new, pixel-level functionalities can be created for commercial IR detectors by relatively simple means. Additionally, high potential for cost reduction in high-performance IR imaging systems with multicolour capabilities is foreseen.

Keywords

• infrared detectors
• plasmonics
• computational simulations
• finite element method