Zyberwear (United States)

Conductors with infrared plasma frequencies are potentially useful hosts of surface electromagnetic waves with sub-wavelength mode confinement for sensing applications. Such materials include semimetals, semiconductors, and conducting polymers. In this paper we present experimental and theoretical investigations of surface waves on doped silicon and the conducting polymer polyaniline (PANI). Resonant absorption features were measured in reflection from lamellar gratings made from doped silicon for various p-polarized CO2 laser wavelengths. The angular reflectance spectra for doped silicon was calculated and compared with the experiments using experimental complex permittivities determined from infrared (IR) ellipsometry data. Polyaniline films were prepared, optical constants determined, and resonance spectra calculated also. A specific goal is to identify a conductor having tight mode confinement, sharp reflectivity resonances, and capability to be functionalized for biosensor applications.

Infrared absorbance is investigated in gold-black, a porous nano-structured conducting film. A two level full factorial optimization study with evaporation-chamber pressure, boat current, substrate temperature, and degree of polymer infusion (for hardening) was performed. Polymer infusion was found generally to reduce absorbance in the long wave IR but has little effect at THz wavelengths, although for samples with the highest absorbance there is a slight improvement in the absorbance figure of merit (FOM) in both wavelength regimes. The characteristic length scales of the structured films vary considerably as a function of deposition parameters, but the IR FOM is found to be weakly correlated with these distributions, which are determined by wavelet analysis of scanning electron micrographs.

This paper presents the finite element analysis (FEA) simulation results and electrostatic characterizations of an uncooled MEMS capacitive IR detector. Thermal, thermalstructural and electrostatic-structural behaviors were simulated. The peak displacement sensitivities were calculated as 0.109nm/pW·µm−2 and 0.029nm/pW·µm−2 for 100µm and 50µm plates, respectively. Electrostatic-structural pull-in behaviors of the devices were tested and the results agreed with simulation well when second order mode pull-in was considered in the FEA model.