Low noise optical pre-amplifier for ultra-low-light detectors and FPAs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9548588-B1
Application number	US-201514663687-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 20, 2015
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

An optical pre-amplifier is described. The optical pre-amplifier has an optical amplifier region that has a semiconductor active region having a direct electronic band gap with a conduction band edge. The semiconductor active region is embedded within a photonic crystal having an electromagnetic band gap having photon energies overlapping the energy of the conduction band edge of the electronic band gap such that spontaneous emission of photons in the semiconductor active region is suppressed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical pre-amplifier, comprising:
an optical amplifier region comprising a semiconductor active region having a direct electronic band gap with a conduction band edge,
the semiconductor active region embedded within a photonic crystal having an electromagnetic band gap having photon energies overlapping the energy of the conduction band edge of the electronic band gap such that spontaneous emission of photons in the semiconductor active region is suppressed.

2. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the optical amplifier region comprises a p-n junction.

3. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the photonic crystal comprises a photonic band gap material having a three-dimensional, two-dimensional or one-dimensional structure.

4. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the photonic crystal comprises a plurality of Bragg gratings.

5. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor active region comprises one or more quantum well (QW) structures.

6. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 5 , wherein the QWs are confined spatially into QW wires or quantum dots.

7. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 5 , wherein the QWs are confined spatially in an arrangement of one or more of nanotubes, bucky balls made of carbon, graphene, germanene, or boron-nitride.

8. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more electrodes arranged to provide current injection into the conduction band edge of the semiconductor active region.

9. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the photonic crystal comprises a dielectric or semiconductor material.

10. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor active region comprises at least one of group IV semiconductors, group II-VI semiconductors, or group III-V semiconductors.

11. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 10 , wherein the semiconductor active region comprises a group III-V semiconductor.

12. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the optical pre-amplifier is configured to amplify a photon impinging on the semiconductor active region.

13. The optical pre-amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the photonic crystal has a predetermined pattern of holes arranged within the semiconductor active region.

14. An optical detector system comprising:
an optical pre-amplifier, comprising an optical amplifier region comprising a semiconductor active region having a direct electronic band gap, the semiconductor active region embedded within a photonic crystal having an electromagnetic band gap having photon energies overlapping the energy of the conduction band edge of the electronic band gap such that spontaneous emission of photons in the semiconductor active region is suppressed; and
an optical detector arranged to receive and detect amplified electromagnetic radiation from the optical pre-amplifier.

15. The optical detector system of claim 14 , wherein the optical pre-amplifier comprises an array of optical pre-amplifiers, and the optical detector comprises an array of optical detectors, each of the optical pre-amplifiers corresponding to a respective one of the optical detectors.

16. The optical detector system of claim 15 , wherein the optical detector system is a focal plane array (FPA) detector device.

17. The optical detector system of claim 14 , further comprising a dielectric spacer separating the optical pre-amplifier and the optical detector.

18. An optical system comprising:
an optical detector system comprising:
an optical pre-amplifier, comprising an optical amplifier region comprising a semiconductor active region having a direct electronic band gap, the semiconductor active region embedded within a photonic crystal having an electromagnetic band gap having photon energies overlapping the energy of the conduction band edge of the electronic band gap such that spontaneous emission of photons in the semiconductor active region is suppressed; and
an optical detector arranged to receive and detect amplified electromagnetic radiation from the optical pre-amplifier; and

imaging optics arranged to image electromagnetic radiation onto the optical detector system.

19. The optical system of claim 18 , wherein the optical system is one of a camera, telescope, or microscope.

20. The optical system of claim 18 , wherein the optical system is a head worn imaging system.

Assignees

• Brown Robert G
• Jensen David W
• Koenck Steven E
• Rockwell Collins Inc

Inventors

• Brown Robert G
• Jensen David W
• Koenck Steven E

Classifications

• Y10S977/755

  Nanosheet or quantum barrier/well, i.e. layer structure having one dimension or thickness of 100 nm or less · CPC title

• H01S5/341

  Structures having reduced dimensionality, e.g. quantum wires · CPC title

• Y10S977/735

  Carbon buckyball · CPC title

• H01S5/3027

  IV compounds · CPC title

• H01L27/14609

  Electricity · mapped topic