Surface plasmon enhanced quantum dot infrared photodetector

Quantum dot infrared photodetector (QDIP) is a promising technology for infrared applications especially the infrared camera. Surface plasmon (SP) resonance on metallic thin film is recognized for an intense electrical field on the thin film surface with an extraordinary transmission. This dissertation objective is to improve the performance of QDIP detector by SP structure with the capability to apply on the focal plane array. The methodology is to integrate SP structure with the QDIP detector to enhance its overall performance. Begin with the investigation on the metallic thin film SP structures; The SP excitation throughout the transmission profiles on the middle-wave and long-wave infrared region is observed and discussed. Next, the SP structure is integrated on the QDIP detector and found the enhancement on the overall performance. The performance enhancement is discussed and found to be related to the SP excitation.;Two projects from the preliminary investigation are chosen to be fully investigated on QDIP. First, the wavelength selection enhancement depending on the polarization selection is reported. It is found that two wavelengths of enhancement can be achieved by the specific design of the SP structure integrated on QDIP. The performance enhancement is also reported. Second, the optimization of the performance enhancement was studied. It was found that the performance of QDIP with SP structure can be optimized by varying the metal thickness and the hole size diameter of the SP structure.;We believe that we have overcome the difficulty of polarization selection of the QDIP by sidestepping with our designed SP structure. We also demonstrate the performance improvement on the QDIP with metal thickness and hole diameter variation. Both of the projects including preliminary investigation are fabricated by the standard photolithography. Hence it is compatible with focal plane any fabrication. Our results address the development of infrared sensor and potentially offer the development of focal plane array cameras which will improve the performance of infrared camera.