HgCdTe remains one of the leading material systems for high-performance infrared detection, but conventional mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors typically require significant cooling to suppress thermally generated noise. Increasing detector operating temperature while maintaining sensitivity is therefore an important goal for reducing the size, weight, power consumption and cost of infrared sensing systems.

In this talk, we explore the integration of metalenses with MWIR HgCdTe detectors as an approach to high-operating-temperature (HOT) infrared sensing. By concentrating incident infrared radiation from a relatively large optical collection area onto a much smaller detector active area, metalens integration can increase the collected optical signal while reducing detector-area-dependent noise. Device- and system-level modelling is used to investigate this concept for both HgCdTe photoconductive and photovoltaic detectors, including temperature-dependent detector response, noise, signal-to-noise ratio and NETD.

The modelling demonstrates the potential of metalens integration to maintain comparable detection performance at substantially higher detector temperatures, providing a pathway towards compact, low-cost MWIR imaging and sensing systems.

Dr Wenwu Pan is a Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia and a researcher within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS). His research focuses on infrared optoelectronic devices and imaging systems, particularly HgCdTe infrared detectors and their integration with meta-optical technologies. His current work investigates metalens-integrated infrared detectors for enhanced optical collection, high-operating-temperature sensing, and polarization-sensitive imaging, combining detector physics, device modelling, fabrication and system-level performance analysis.