%0 Journal Article
%T Towards high-speed imaging of infrared photons with bio-inspired nanoarchitectures
%A Pris, Andrew D.
%A Utturkar, Yogen
%A Surman, Cheryl
%A Morris, William G.
%A Vert, Alexey
%A Zalyubovskiy, Sergiy
%A Deng, Tao
%A Ghiradella, Helen T.
%A Potyrailo, Radislav A.
%J Nature Photonics
%D 2012
%V 6
%N 3
%F Pris_etal2012
%O exported from refbase (https://db.rplab.ru/refbase/show.php?record=785), last updated on Mon, 07 May 2012 21:14:47 -0500
%X Existing infrared detectors rely on complex microfabrication and thermal management methods. Here, we report an attractive platform of low-thermal-mass resonators inspired by the architectures of iridescent Morpho butterfly scales. In these resonators, the optical cavity is modulated by its thermal expansion and refractive index change, resulting in `wavelength conversion' of mid-wave infrared (3-8 µm) radiation into visible iridescence changes. By doping Morpho butterfly scales with single-walled carbon nanotubes, we achieved mid-wave infrared detection with 18-62 mK noise-equivalent temperature difference and 35-40 Hz heat-sink-free response speed. The nanoscale pitch and the extremely small thermal mass of individual `pixels' promise significant improvements over existing detectors. Computational analysis explains the origin of this thermal response and guides future conceptually new bio-inspired thermal imaging sensor designs.
%K fromIPMRAS
%P 195-200