Long-wavelength infrared photovoltaic heterodyne receivers using patch-antenna quantum cascade detectors

Abstract

Quantum cascade detectors (QCD) are unipolar infrared devices where the transport of the photo excited carriers takes place through confined electronic states, without an applied bias. In this photovoltaic mode, the detector's noise is not dominated by a dark shot noise process, therefore, performances are less degraded at high temperature with respect to photoconductive detectors. This work describes a 9 µm QCD embedded into a patchantenna metamaterial which operates with state-of-theart performances. The metamaterial gathers photons on a collection area, Acoll, much bigger than the geometrical area of the detector, improving the signal to noise ratio up to room temperature. The background-limited detectivity at 83 K is 5.5 x 10 10 cm Hz 1/2 W -1 , while at room temperature, the responsivity is 50 mA/W at 0 V bias. Patch antenna QCD is an ideal receiver for a heterodyne detection set-up, where a signal at a frequency 1.4 GHz and T=295 K is reported as first demonstration of uncooled 9µm photovoltaic receivers with GHz electrical bandwidth. These findings guide the research towards uncooled IR quantum limited detection.

10 Gbit s−1 Free Space Data Transmission at 9 µm Wavelength With Unipolar Quantum Optoelectronics

“…UQOs enables the realization of optoelectronic systems that combine in phase different devices to produce complex functions and operations. [1,2] In the mid-infrared this is highly sought after, not only for technological applications, but also to address fundamental physics questions. For example, highly sensitive and ultrafast optoelectronic systems are required for free-space communications, [3][4][5][6] light detection and ranging (LIDAR), [7] high resolution spectroscopy, [8] and in observational astronomy.…”

Near-field resonant photon sorting applied: dual-band metasurface quantum well infrared photodetectors for gas sensing

“…Although intensive engineering of photonic structures was demonstrated in this work, tailoring electronic structures would be another important topic. For instance, by replacing the photoconductive QWIP with a photovoltaic QWIP [31,38], room temperature operation with sufficient detectivity could be achieved, greatly increasing the functionality of our devices.…”

“…An intense vertical electric field, essential for ISBT absorption [26,27], is provided by the MDM cavity through rotation of the incident horizontal electric field to vertical, and intensity enhancement [14,28,29]. High responsivities [23], fast response times [24,30], and detectivities approaching theoretical limits [21,24,25,31], sufficient to replace toxic HgCdTe presently dominant at wavelengths beyond 5 μm, have been demonstrated.…”

Broadband and photovoltaic THz/IR response in the GaAs-based ratchet photodetector

“…Comparison between the proposed ratchet photodetector (RP) and the state-of-the-art photon-type photodetectors. The state-of-the-art detectors used in the comparison included quantum-well IR/THz detectors (13,48,49), quantum dot IR photodetectors (QDIPs) (19,50), quantum cascade detectors (QCDs) (51,52), homojunction interface work function internal photoemission detector (HIWIP) (16), and optical pumped hot hole effect detector (OPHED) (20).…”