Metamaterial metal-based bolometers

  • Autor: F.B.P. Niesler, J.K. Gansel, S. Fischbach, and M. Wegener
  • Quelle:

    Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 203508 (2012)

  • Datum: 16.5.2012
  • Abstract:

    We demonstrate metamaterial metal-based bolometers, which take advantage of resonant absorption in that a spectral and/or polarization filter can be built into the bolometer. Our proof-of-principle gold-nanostructure-based devices operate around 1.5 μm wavelength and exhibit room-temperature time constants of about 134 μs. The ultimate detectivity is limited by Johnson noise, enabling room-temperature detection of 1 nW light levels within 1 Hz bandwidth. Graded bolometer arrays might allow for integrated spectrometers with several octaves bandwidth without the need for gratings or prisms and for integrated polarization analysis without external polarization optics.