Metasurface Enhanced Upconversion Efficiency for High-Performance Pixel-Less Thermal Imaging

Abstract

High-performance infrared thermal imaging devices are widely used in military, biomedical and other fields. Upconversion pixel-less imaging is promising for infrared imaging. In this paper, we propose a hybrid metasurface to achieve high upconversion efficiency of the integrated quantum well infrared photodetector and light-emitting diodes (QWIP-LED). Systematical investigations on the performance of the QWIP-LED, including optical coupling efficiency, light extraction efficiency, and upconversion efficiency, have been carried out via theoretical simulation. We also present the integration time for different devices with different optical coupling structures. Numerical results show that 45° edge-coupled QWIP-LED is not suitable for imaging applications for the low upconversion efficiency. Traditional grating-coupled QWIP-LED can be optimized for real-time thermal imaging. The hybrid-metasurface-based QWIP-LED can achieve a high frame rate above 300 Hz due to the enhanced upconversion efficiency. This work gives a precise description of QWIP-LED performance with different device structures and opens the way for large format upconversion pixel-less imaging.