Detection of electromagnetic radiation using nonlinear materials

An image sensor comprising a plurality of sensor elements, at least one sensor element in the plurality of sensor elements comprising:

• a semiconductor substrate comprising a depletion region;
• at least one detector element disposed on a first side of the semiconductor substrate, the at least one detector element comprising at least one resonator structure, the at least one resonator structure comprising at least two conductive structures separated by a spacing;
• and
• a circuit element disposed on a second side of the semiconductor substrate opposite the first side of the semiconductor substrate, the circuit element including a readout circuitry,
• wherein the at least one sensor element is configured such that electron-hole pairs are generated in a region of the semiconductor substrate near the spacing based on an enhanced electric field induced in the spacing by a resonant response of the at least one resonator structure to a presence of target electromagnetic radiation;
• wherein a distance between the depletion region and the at least one resonator structure is configured such that the electron-hole pairs are generated in the depletion region when the image sensor is illuminated by the target electromagnetic radiation and an electric field in the depletion region separates the electron-hole pairs so as to facilitate measurement of the electron-hole pairs to provide an indication of the presence of the target electromagnetic radiation, and
• wherein the image sensor is configured to measure a conductivity based on the generated electron-hole pairs as an indication of the presence of the target electromagnetic radiation.

An image sensing method, comprising:

• A) irradiating a detector element, disposed on a first side of a substrate having a depletion region, with electromagnetic radiation at least partially reflected from an object of interest, the detector element comprising a resonator structure defined by two conductive structures separated by a spacing;
• B) in response to A), generating charge carriers near the spacing and in the depletion region of the substrate, based on an enhanced electric field induced in the spacing by a resonant response of the resonator structure to at least one frequency component in the electromagnetic radiation;
• and
• C) electronically generating an image of at least a portion of the object of interest based at least in part on the generated charge carriers,
• wherein A) comprises irradiating a first resonator structure and a second resonator structure in the detector element with the electromagnetic radiation, wherein the first resonator structure has a first dimension different from a second dimension of the second resonator structure so as to facilitate spectroscopic sensing.