A room-temperature polarization-sensitive CMOS terahertz camera based on quantum-dot-enhanced terahertz-to-visible photon upconversion

Jiaojian Shi; Daehan Yoo; Ferran Vidal-Codina; Chan-Wook Baik; Kyung-Sang Cho; Ngoc-Cuong Nguyen; Hendrik Utzat; Jinchi Han; Aaron M Lindenberg; Vladimir Bulović; Moungi G Bawendi; Jaime Peraire; Sang-Hyun Oh; Keith A Nelson

doi:10.1038/s41565-022-01243-9

A room-temperature polarization-sensitive CMOS terahertz camera based on quantum-dot-enhanced terahertz-to-visible photon upconversion

Nat Nanotechnol. 2022 Dec;17(12):1288-1293. doi: 10.1038/s41565-022-01243-9. Epub 2022 Nov 3.

Authors

Jiaojian Shi^#¹, Daehan Yoo^#², Ferran Vidal-Codina³, Chan-Wook Baik⁴, Kyung-Sang Cho⁴, Ngoc-Cuong Nguyen³, Hendrik Utzat^{1

5}, Jinchi Han⁶, Aaron M Lindenberg^{7

8

9

10}, Vladimir Bulović⁶, Moungi G Bawendi¹, Jaime Peraire³, Sang-Hyun Oh¹¹, Keith A Nelson¹²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
³ Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Advanced Sensor Lab, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Suwon, Republic of Korea.
⁵ College of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁸ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁹ Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Photon Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. [email protected].
¹² Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 36329270
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01243-9

Abstract

Detection of terahertz (THz) radiation has many potential applications, but presently available detectors are limited in many aspects of their performance, including sensitivity, speed, bandwidth and operating temperature. Most do not allow the characterization of THz polarization states. Recent observation of THz-driven luminescence in quantum dots offers a possible detection mechanism via field-driven interdot charge transfer. We demonstrate a room-temperature complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor THz camera and polarimeter based on quantum-dot-enhanced THz-to-visible upconversion mechanism with optimized luminophore geometries and fabrication designs. Besides broadband and fast responses, the nanoslit-based sensor can detect THz pulses with peak fields as low as 10 kV cm^-1. A related coaxial nanoaperture-type device shows a to-date-unexplored capability to simultaneously record the THz polarization state and field strength with similar sensitivity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Luminescence
Photons
Quantum Dots*
Semiconductors
Temperature