The invention relates to a thermal detector (1) for detecting electromagnetic radiation, comprising: a readout substrate (10); a membrane (20) suspended above the readout substrate, comprising: a thermometric transducer (23), and a resistive load (25) that is formed from a track that extends longitudinally to form a closed continuous loop; a collecting antenna (16), which is located away from the suspended membrane (20) and coupled to the resistive load (25), and which comprises a coupling track (16.1), which track is located plumb with the resistive load (25) and extends longitudinally to form an open continuous loop, thus permitting inductive coupling between the coupling track (16.1) and the resistive load (25).

An absorber structure for a thermal detector, the absorber structure including edges defining a basic form, a plurality of first legs of electrically conducting material joined in an electrically conductive manner to form, between the edges of the absorber structure, a grid having openings, the first legs forming at least one continuous connection between the edges of the absorber structure; and a plurality of second legs of electrically conducting material joined in an electrically conductive manner to the first legs, wherein the second legs protrude from the first legs into the openings of the grid and terminate at points of termination located at a distance from adjacent first legs.

The invention relates to a thermal detector (1) for detecting electromagnetic radiation, comprising: a readout substrate (10); a membrane (20) suspended above the readout substrate, comprising: a thermometric transducer (23), and a resistive load (25) that is formed from a track that extends longitudinally to form a closed continuous loop; a collecting antenna (16), which is located away from the suspended membrane (20) and coupled to the resistive load (25), and which comprises a coupling track (16.1), which track is located plumb with the resistive load (25) and extends longitudinally to form an open continuous loop, thus permitting inductive coupling between the coupling track (16.1) and the resistive load (25).

A near-field probe (and associated method) compatible with near-infrared electromagnetic radiation and high temperature applications above 300° C. (or 500° C. in some applications) includes an optical waveguide and a photonic thermal emitting structure comprising a near-field thermally emissive material coupled to or part of the optical waveguide. The photonic thermal emitting structure is structured and configured to emit near-field energy responsive to at least one environmental parameter of interest, and the near-field probe is structured and configured to enable extraction of the near-field energy to a far-field by coupling the near-field energy into one or more guided modes of the optical waveguide.

Devices including graphene quantum dots yield extremely high performance THz bolometers, by measuring the current of hot electrons formed in the graphene source and drain electrodes of the device and propagating through the graphene quantum dot connected thereto. Devices may also include additional materials such as MoS.sub.2, as well as one or more gate electrodes to alter performance as needed.

Disclosed herein are MEMS devices and systems and methods of manufacturing or operating the MEMS devices and systems for transmitting and detecting radiation. The devices and methods described herein are applicable to terahertz radiation. In some embodiments, the MEMS devices and systems are used in imaging applications. In some embodiments, a microelectromechanical system comprises a glass substrate configured to pass radiation from a first surface of the glass substrate through a second surface of the glass substrate, the glass substrate comprising TFT circuitry; a lid comprising a surface; spacers separating the lid and glass substrate; a cavity defined by the spacers, surface of the lid, and second surface of the glass substrate; a pixel in the cavity, positioned on the second surface of the glass substrate, electrically coupled to the TFT circuitry, and comprising an absorber to detect the radiation; and a reflector to direct the radiation to the absorbers and positioned on the lid.

A solid-state device for photo detection, in general, of terahertz radiation is disclosed. One aspect is a detector device comprising a body having a photoconductive material, a first antenna element connected to a first portion of the body, and a second antenna element connected to a second portion of the body. The first antenna element and the second antenna element are arranged to induce an electric field in the body in response to an incident signal. Further, the device has a waveguide arranged to couple light into the photoconductive material via a coupling interface between the waveguide and the body, where the coupling interface faces away from the first portion and the second portion of the body and is closer to the first portion than to the second portion.

An apparatus for light detection includes a light, or photon, detector assembly and a dielectric resonator layer coupled to the detector assembly. The dielectric resonator layer is configured to receive transmission of incident light that is directed into the detector assembly by the dielectric resonator layer. The dielectric resonator layer resonates with a range of wavelengths of the incident light.

Devices including graphene quantum dots yield extremely high performance THz bolometers, by measuring the current of hot electrons formed in the graphene source and drain electrodes of the device and propagating through the graphene quantum dot connected thereto. Devices may also include additional materials such as MoS.sub.2, as well as one or more gate electrodes to alter performance as needed.

Disclosed are systems and methods for improving applications involving the generation and detection of electromagnetic radiation at terahertz (THz) frequencies. Embodiments of the systems and methods include the fabrication and use of plasmonic devices that enhance light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale by extreme focusing with nanostructured metals. This plasmonic enhancement is used to produce high efficiency THz photoconductive switches that combine the benefits of low-temperature grown GaAs while using mature 1.55 m femtosecond lasers operating with photon energy below the GaAs band-gap.