Ultra-thin plasmonic detectors

Plasmonic materials, and their ability to enable strong concentration of optical fields, have offered a tantalizing foundation for the demonstration sub-diffraction-limit photonic devices. However, practical scalable plasmonic optoelectronics real world applications remain elusive. In this work, we present an infrared photodetector leveraging device architecture consisting “designer” epitaxial metal integrated with quantum-engineered detector structure, all in mature III-V semiconductor material system. Incident light is coupled into surface plasmon-polariton modes at detector/designer interface, confinement these allows sub-diffractive ( ? ? 0 / 33 ) absorber layer thickness, effectively decoupling detector’s absorption efficiency dark current. We demonstrate high-performance detectors operating non-cryogenic temperatures T = 195 K ), without sacrificing external quantum efficiency, superior well-established commercially available detectors. This work provides optoelectronic mid-infrared applications.