Bowtie nanoantenna integrated with indium gallium arsenide antimonide for uncooled infrared detector with enhanced sensitivity

A novel high-impedance nanoantenna with an embedded matching network is implemented to realize a highly sensitive infrared detector. A bowtie antenna is operated at its antiparallel resonance and loaded with a small low-bandgap (E-g = 0.52 eV) indium gallium arsenide antimonide (InGaAsSb) p-n junction. The structure is optimized for maximum power transfer and significant field enhancement at its terminals for a desired frequency band where the maximum quantum efficiency of InGaAsSb is observed. The sensitivity improvement of the proposed detector is evaluated against the traditional bulk detector and it is shown that the detectivity is improved by the field enhancement factor, which is approximately 20 for the case considered here. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America