Tunable Narrowband Metasurface-Enhanced MWIR T2SL Detectors

MWIR imaging is critical need for unmanned aircrafts and infantry weapons systems. However, the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of conventional imaging detectors (based on HgCdTe, MCT) is prohibitively high, dominated by large dewar-based cooling assemblies needed to reduce dark current to acceptable levels. Furthermore, adding multispectral or hyperspectral capabilities to the imaging system generally requires external optical filtering, which ultimately limits the noise floor of the system. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with the University of Texas, Austin (UT), propose to develop a tunable metasurface-enhanced type-II superlattice (T2SL) imaging detector that achieves significant absorption enhancement over narrow bandwidths within the midwave infrared (MWIR, 3¢5 Ąm). The technology will leverage critical innovations in ultrathin T2SL detectors coupled with metasurfaces to achieve in-band D* of 4ū1011 Jones at 200K.