On-Chip Bimetallic Plasmo-Thermomechanical Detectors for Mid-Infrared Radiation

Zhao, Qiancheng; Sadri-Moshkenani, Parinaz; Khan, Mohammad Wahiduzzaman; Torun, Rasul; Boyraz, Özdal

doi:10.1109/lpt.2017.2728373

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…By exploiting the interaction between the nanowires and the waveguide evanescent fields, efficient on-chip transduction of mechanical displacement to optical attenuation has been achieved, eliminating the need for the cumbersome and complex off-chip optical readouts. Although the prototype device is demonstrated at visible wavelength, the proposed design is scalable to mid-infrared or farinfrared wavelengths by modifying the dimension of the strip antennas and periods of the unit cells [30]. The bandwidth of the detector can be optimized by reducing the device thermal constant and the nanowire length.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The amount of the deflection of nanowires is determined by the thickness of each layer, the temperature gradient profile, and the length of the nanowire. Both the simulation and the analytical solutions show that the ratio of the Au and Ni layer thickness should be 3/2 to yield the highest displacement [30]. The thermomechanical design concludes that the nanowire should have 30 nm thick Au, 20 nm thick Ni, with additional 3 nm Ti for adhesion purposes for optimal design.…”

Section: Device Modelmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Not only the displacement of the nanowire affects the interaction with the evanescent field from the waveguide, but also is the number of the nanowires. Too few wires limit the modulation strength while too many wires cause extensive attenuation of the waveguide output power such that weak modulations will be buried under noise [30]. In both cases, the waveguide output power swing will be reduced.…”

Section: Device Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our previous work for a mid-infrared detector [30], we defined the figure of merit (FOM) of a detector as the ratio of the change of the S 21 parameter to the change of the incident infrared radiation intensity, namely, ΔS 21 /ΔI IR , to characterize the sensor responsivity. Here, the modulation index is used instead of the ΔS 21 , simply because it is easy to calculate in digital processing and straightforward to present in the paper.…”

Section: Experimental Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, the modulation index is used instead of the ΔS 21 , simply because it is easy to calculate in digital processing and straightforward to present in the paper. The responsivity defined in this paper is ¼ of the FOM in Ref [30], because (i) only positive frequency coefficient is used for calculation, so the responsivity is reduced half by nature; (ii) the positive frequency coefficient is converted from the amplitude of the modulation in time domain, while the change of the S 21 parameter counts on full-swing of the modulation which is twice the amplitude value. Therefore, the responsivity of this presented device is 0.003954 µm 2 /µW, which is equivalent to 1.58 × 10 −2 µm 2 /µW in terms of FOM.…”

Section: Experimental Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasmo-thermomechanical radiation detector with on-chip optical readout

Zhao¹,

Khan²,

Farzinazar³

et al. 2018

Opt. Express

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Plasmonic structures have long proved their capabilities to concentrate and manipulate light in micro-and nano-scales that facilitate strong light-matter interactions. Besides electromagnetic properties, ultra-small plasmonic structures may lead to novel applications based on their mechanical properties. Here we report efficient coupling between optical absorption and mechanical deformation in nanoscales through plasmonically enhanced fishbone nanowires. Using tailorable absorbers, free-space radiation energy is converted into heat to thermally actuate the suspended nanowires whose deformation is sensed by the evanescent fields from a waveguide. The demonstration at 660 nm wavelength with above 30% absorption shows the potential of the device to detect nW/√Hz power in an uncooled environment. IntroductionThe fundamental mechanism of infrared detection is energy transduction from the electromagnetic domain to others. Depending on the energy transduction mechanism, most of the infrared detectors can be classified as either photon detection or thermal sensing [1]. The semiconductor-based photonic detectors [2][3][4] have the advantages of high signal-to-noise ratio and fast response time. However, these advantages come at the expense of bulkiness, high cost, and power-inefficiency due to the use of cryogenic cooling. On the other hand, thermal detectors that utilize the temperature-induced changes in material properties are less expensive, more power efficient, and compatible with room temperature operations. Up to date, several uncooled thermal detectors have been demonstrated based on pyroelectricity [5][6][7], thermoelectricity [8][9][10], conductivity [11][12][13][14], piezoelectricity [15], optical resonance [16], mechanical deflection [17,18], etc. Thermo-mechanical detectors rely on the structural deformation upon exposure to radiation. As structure sizes go into nanoscales, finding an efficient light concentrator that can generate enough temperature gradient in subwavelength dimensions becomes one of the fundamental challenges. Fortunately, the plasmonic structures address this challenge by enhancing the light-matter interaction and boosting the absorption [19,20] in nanoscales. Another challenge lies in converting the tiny mechanical deflection into a measurable quantity. In doing so, optical approaches often utilize trigonometry [21,22] and interferometry [23,24] to amplify the displacement. However, these optical systems require discrete bulky lenses and detectors, hence they are difficult to miniaturize. Therefore, it is highly desirable to have efficient actuation in plasmonic nanomechanical structures with compact and sensitive on-chip transduction [25-27] and on-chip optical readout.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Device Modelmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Device Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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