High Speed Room Temperature IR Camera Based on Plasmon Physics

Several critical DoD missions require reliable, rapid, and non-cryogenically cooled long wave IR cameras. This camera, in turn, can be developed only with a new photodiode architecture wherein detector dark current is reduced by at least 3 orders of magnitude. In this proposal, Tanner Research and Stanford University are proposing a plasmon lens & resonant antenna device to efficiently focus broadband incident IR radiation onto a spatially reduced photodiode. Photodiode volume reduction corresponds to a reduction in photodiode dark current. During Phase I, we will investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of our high risk/high reward approach of a new photodiode architecture. During Phase II, we will collaborate with Raytheon Vision Systems to build the IR camera.