Nano-plasmonic Bundt Optenna for broadband polarization-insensitive and enhanced infrared detection

Infrared detection devices are becoming miniature with micro or nano-scale size. The advantages of downsizing come on the expense of insufficient collection of infrared radiation. Therefore, utilizing nano-plasmonic optical antennas becomes mandatory. However, it is desirable to develop antennas with broad bandwidth, polarization insensitivity, wide field-of-view, and reasonable plasmonic losses in order to collect most of incident infrared radiation and enhance power absorption efficiency. Here, an innovative optical antenna (optenna) is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. It has a novel shape of Bundt baking-pan. The gold Bundt is arranged in a periodic array that can be placed on top of a thin-film infrared absorbing layer. The developed optenna can squeeze infrared electric and magnetic fields to 50 nm-wide area in order to enhance material absorption efficiency. It demonstrates polarization insensitivity and ultra-broad bandwidth with a large fractional-bandwidth within the near, shortwave, and midwave infrared bands. It shows a remarkable enhanced power absorption efficiency up to 8 orders of magnitude with a reasonable average power loss of −3 dB and 80° field-of-view. It can be promising for future applications in solar-cells, telecommunication photodetectors, shortwave cameras, and midwave microbolometers.