A Hemispherical Image Sensor Array Fabricated with Organic Photomemory Transistors.

Hemispherical image sensors simplify lens designs, reduce optical aberrations, and improve image resolution for compact wide-field-of-view cameras. To achieve hemispherical image sensors, organic materials are promising candidates due to the following advantages: tunability of optoelectronic/spectral response and low-temperature low-cost processes. Here, a photolithographic process is developed to prepare a hemispherical image sensor array using organic thin film photomemory transistors with a density of 308 pixels per square centimeter. This design includes only one photomemory transistor as a single active pixel, in contrast to the conventional pixel architecture, consisting of select/readout/reset transistors and a photodiode. The organic photomemory transistor, comprising light-sensitive organic semiconductor and charge-trapping dielectric, is able to achieve a linear photoresponse (light intensity range, from 1 to 50 W m-2 ), along with a responsivity as high as 1.6 A W-1 (wavelength = 465 nm) for a dark current of 0.24 A m-2 (drain voltage = -1.5 V). These observed values represent the best responsivity for similar dark currents among all the reported hemispherical image sensor arrays to date. A transfer method was further developed that does not damage organic materials for hemispherical organic photomemory transistor arrays. These developed techniques are scalable and are amenable for other high-resolution 3D organic semiconductor devices.

On-chip plasmonic waveguide optical waveplate.

Polarization manipulation is essential in almost every photonic system ranging from telecommunications to bio-sensing to quantum information. This is traditionally achieved using bulk waveplates. With the developing trend of photonic systems towards integration and miniaturization, the need for an on-chip waveguide type waveplate becomes extremely urgent. However, this is very challenging using conventional dielectric waveguides, which usually require complex 3D geometries to alter the waveguide symmetry and are also difficult to create an arbitrary optical axis. Recently, a waveguide waveplate was realized using femtosecond laser writing, but the device length is in millimeter range. Here, for the first time we propose and experimentally demonstrate an ultracompact, on-chip waveplate using an asymmetric hybrid plasmonic waveguide to create an arbitrary optical axis. The device is only in several microns length and produced in a flexible integratable IC compatible format, thus opening up the potential for integration into a broad range of systems.