Active plasmonic optoelectronics

In this talk I will discuss our group’s work on the design, growth, fabrication and characterization of a new class of all-epitaxial plasmonic optoelectronic devices with enhanced performance when compared to state-of-the-art infrared optoelectronics. Specifically, we demonstrate that highly doped semiconductors, serving as ‘designer’ plasmonic materials, can be monolithically integrated with a range of infrared optoelectronic device architectures to provide strong field confinement, and enhanced emission, detection, and potentially modulation capabilities in the mid-infrared. We will present results from long-wave infrared detectors with thickness of only 350 nm, capable of over 50% external quantum efficiency and state-of-the-art detectivity, as well as dual color detectors, spectrally-selective detectors, and enhanced efficiency emitters leveraging our designer plasmonic materials with a range of novel device architectures.