Design of Microlens Arrays for Thermal Imaging with Spintronic Poisson Bolometers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Ziyi, Bauer, Leif, Jacob, Zubin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yang, Ziyi
Bauer, Leif
Jacob, Zubin
author_facet Yang, Ziyi
Bauer, Leif
Jacob, Zubin
contents Infrared (IR) detectors are widely used due to their ability to sense thermal radiation. Recently, a room-temperature infrared detector known as the spintronic Poisson bolometer was introduced. While offering fast digital readout, its sensitivity is currently limited by its small photosensitive area and array fill factor. Beyond this specific detector, many emerging detector architectures also require substantial in-pixel electronics or engineering tradeoffs, which can reduce the fill factor and degrade optical coupling efficiency. In this work, we present design guidelines for spherical plano-convex microlens arrays that enhance light collection in spintronic Poisson bolometer arrays in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR). Guided by the simulations, we fabricate a microlens array sample to demonstrate that the chosen geometrical parameters are experimentally attainable and compatible with the fabrication process. We then systematically explore the scaling laws between sensor active size, microlens geometries, and the resulting light collection metrics, yielding practical design rules that are broadly relevant to MWIR detector arrays with limited active area. A radiometric-stochastic model is used to quantify the resulting sensitivity improvements for the spintronic Poisson bolometer. Our work is the first systematic simulation of a microlens design with spintronic Poisson bolometer arrays, bridging microphotonics, spintronics, and thermal imaging.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_12491
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design of Microlens Arrays for Thermal Imaging with Spintronic Poisson Bolometers
Yang, Ziyi
Bauer, Leif
Jacob, Zubin
Optics
Applied Physics
Infrared (IR) detectors are widely used due to their ability to sense thermal radiation. Recently, a room-temperature infrared detector known as the spintronic Poisson bolometer was introduced. While offering fast digital readout, its sensitivity is currently limited by its small photosensitive area and array fill factor. Beyond this specific detector, many emerging detector architectures also require substantial in-pixel electronics or engineering tradeoffs, which can reduce the fill factor and degrade optical coupling efficiency. In this work, we present design guidelines for spherical plano-convex microlens arrays that enhance light collection in spintronic Poisson bolometer arrays in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR). Guided by the simulations, we fabricate a microlens array sample to demonstrate that the chosen geometrical parameters are experimentally attainable and compatible with the fabrication process. We then systematically explore the scaling laws between sensor active size, microlens geometries, and the resulting light collection metrics, yielding practical design rules that are broadly relevant to MWIR detector arrays with limited active area. A radiometric-stochastic model is used to quantify the resulting sensitivity improvements for the spintronic Poisson bolometer. Our work is the first systematic simulation of a microlens design with spintronic Poisson bolometer arrays, bridging microphotonics, spintronics, and thermal imaging.
title Design of Microlens Arrays for Thermal Imaging with Spintronic Poisson Bolometers
topic Optics
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12491