Infrared detection with intrinsically conductive conjugated polymers
AssigneesThe University of Southern Mississippi, Government of the United States as Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorsJason D. Azoulay, Jarrett Vella, Mohammed I. Vakil, Lifeng Huang, Naresh Eedugurala
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Abstract
A photoconductive infrared detector comprising a substrate, an electrode geometry, and a layer of intrinsically conductive or photoconductive donor-acceptor conjugated polymer.
Claims23
1 A photoconductive detector with an organic active layer comprising:
- a substrate;
- an electrode geometry positioned on the substrate and including:
- a first transmission line having a terminal end;
- a second transmission line having a terminal end, wherein the first and second transmission lines are spaced apart to define a gap, the gap between the first and second transmission lines acting as one pixel;
- a first layer at least partially covering the gap;
- and
- a second layer at least partially covering the polymer, wherein the second layer is configured as an encapsulant.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein the second layer is formed of one of alumina, silica, zinc selenide, germanium, barium fluoride, germanium-arsenide-selenide, gallium arsenide, glass, fused silica (“quartz”), silicon, magnesium fluoride, calcium fluoride, zinc sulphide, and magnesium aluminate.
The photoconductive detector claim 1, wherein the first layer is formed of an oligomer or polymer with a conjugated structure, narrow bandgap, is electrically conductive, and possesses open-shell character.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein the first layer is a spin-coated, donor-acceptor conjugated polymer layer.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein the first layer is deposited by oxidative chemical vapor deposition.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, further comprising:
- pulse capture electronics;
- cascaded pre-amplifier circuitry;
- and
- an analog-to-digital converter.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein the electrode geometry is biased with an RF or DC potential less than a dielectric breakdown threshold of the substrate.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first layer and the second layer is optically transparent.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, further comprising:
- a contact pad operably coupled with one of the first and second transmission lines.
The photoconductive detector of claim 1, wherein the first and second transmission lines are formed of gold.
A linear detector, comprising:
- a substrate;
- an m×n dimensional array of ohmic contacts fabricated on the substrate;
- a polymer layer at least partially covering the array of ohmic contacts;
- an ohmic top electrode at least partially covering the polymer layer;
- and
- an encapsulant layer at least partially covering the ohmic top electrode.
A method of fabricating a photoconductive detector, comprising steps of:
- fabricating first and second transmission lines on a substrate to define a gap;
- spin-coating a polymer layer over at least a portion of the substrate;
- evaporating an encapsulant layer over at least a portion of the gap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.