Detection of Infrared Radiation and Upconversion using Semiconductor Nanostructures

The goal of this investigation is demonstration of the feasibility of a new class of extremely sensitive detectors of infraRed (IR) radiation. As is well known, it has proven to be very difficult to improve the sensitivity of IR detectors. In the last few years there have been tremendous advances in the fabrication of silicon nanostructures and arrays of nanotubes. Single-electron transport effects, and the infrared properties of nanotubes have been measured. There has also been progress in the theory and modeling of electrical and optical properties of nanoscale mosfets and nanotubes. Here we propose to use the unique characteristics of carbon nanotubes to design sensitive detectors and detector arrays for the IR. In addition the IR to optical conversion characteristics of arrays of nanotubes will be specified. A novel IR detector that is based on silicon nanoscale mosfets will also be presented. And the feasibility of IR to optical conversion using nanoscale silicon devices will be investigated. In phase I, the contribution of the different detection mechanisms will be determined. Analysis of the detector's noise, bandwidth, and detectivity will be included. The design will be specified as well as the steps in the fabrication process.