Abstract
Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) resonant absorbers comprise a conducting ground plane, a thin dielectric, and thin separated metal top-surface structures. The dielectric SiO2 strongly absorbs near 9 μm wavelength and has correspondingly strong long-wave-infrared (LWIR) dispersion for the refractive index. This dispersion results in multiple absorption resonances spanning the LWIR, which can enhance broad-band sensitivity for LWIR bolometers. Similar considerations apply to silicon nitride Si3N4. TiO2 and AlN have comparatively low dispersion and give simple single LWIR resonances. These dispersion-dependent features for infrared MIM devices are demonstrated by experiment, electrodynamic simulation, and an analytic model based on standing waves.
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Acknowledgments
University of Central Florida authors except Janardan Nath received partial support from AFRL contract FA8650-16-C-1738. Justin Cleary and Evan Smith acknowledge support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Program Manager Dr. Gernot Pomrenke) under award number FA9550-15RYCOR162.
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Calhoun, S.R., Lowry, V.C., Stack, R. et al. Effect of dispersion on metal-insulator-metal infrared absorption resonances. MRS Communications 8, 830–834 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.88
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.88