A Low-Cost, High Performance Collodial Quantum Dot MWIR Focal Plane Array

There is a growing need for the wider deployment of infrared cameras in various defense applications, from handheld to vehicle-mounted. Meeting this requires a low-cost imaging device that has low noise and high frame rates. Microbolometers largely fill this need in the longwave infrared regime, although they suffer from relatively slow response times and are near their technological performance limits. HgTe colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) can meet and exceed the performance of bolometers at a comparable cost, and significantly lower the cost of midwave infrared (MWIR) photon detector arrays. Low-cost MWIR CQD-based monolithic focal plane arrays (FPAs) developed by our team have already demonstrated a 100 mK noise equivalent differential temperature (NEDT). We propose to exceed the current performance record of CQD-based FPAs toward uncooled operation by blending experimental efforts with a more detailed theoretical understanding of film transport properties. New processing and device architectures will be developed, optimizing absorption and transport through improvements in single-element devices with subsequent transfer to FPAs. Theoretical efforts will compute the CQD electronic structure and the electron hopping transition rates as input to a full Monte Carlo film transport model. Theoretical predictions of performance-limiting factors will be identified and used to guide experimental efforts.