Dual-band Photon Sorting Plasmonic MIM Metamaterial Sensor

We propose plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) metamaterial designs for the sensing of two infrared wavelength bands, the mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) and long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) band by using a photon sorting technique. The proposed structures can capture light effectively on the metasurfaces based on coupling of free space energy to a subwavelength plasmonic mode. Photon sorting can be performed such that the incident light with a broad spectrum upon the metasurfaces can be "split" according to wavelength, channeling different spectral bands to different physical regions of the array on the surface where it is then absorbed by the insulator. Two different structures described in this work are (1) Square-type structure which consists of MIM resonators being periodically arranged to form a polarization independent sensor and (2) Meander-type structure which consists of MIM resonators being connected to form the meander shaped sensor. Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe) posts are used as absorbing material within the MIM structure to generate free carriers and allow for collection of carrier charges. The proposed structures have compact designs and exhibit efficient light splitting and absorption for the IR spectral band. Structural and material properties, the electric field distribution and Poynting vector fields at the resonance frequencies are provided. Applications include thermal imaging, night vision systems, rifle sights, missile detection and discrimination, dual bandwidth optical filters, light trapping, and electromagnetically induced transparency.