Room temperature thermopile THz sensor

In this paper, we present the conception, fabrication and characterization of a room temperature thermopile designed to detect electromagnetic fields at 3THz. The absorber consists of a metallic grid made of one of the material of the thin film thermocouples. The design of the grid is based on a the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. 2013-04, Vol.193, p.155-160
Main Authors: Ben Mbarek, Sofiane, Euphrasie, Sébastien, Baron, Thomas, Thiery, Laurent, Vairac, Pascal, Cretin, Bernard, Guillet, Jean-Paul, Chusseau, Laurent
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Diffraction
Electrical resistivity
Equivalence
Instrumentation and Detectors
Physics
Reduction
Sensors
Terahertz
Testing equipment
Thermocouple
Thermocouples
Thermopile
Thermopiles
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Summary:In this paper, we present the conception, fabrication and characterization of a room temperature thermopile designed to detect electromagnetic fields at 3THz. The absorber consists of a metallic grid made of one of the material of the thin film thermocouples. The design of the grid is based on a theoretical multilayer model using equivalent resistivity and taking into account small diffraction effects. For future work with sub-wavelength resolution, we have also studied the effect of the reduction of the size of the grids on the equivalent resistivity. The grid is deposited on a 1.5mm-radius SiO2 circular membrane. The time constant of the sensor is measured with THz and optical sources and it is consistent with finite elements simulations. The sensitivity and the limit of detection are also evaluated. First results at 0.3THz (and not at the designed frequency of 3THz, because of limitations in the testing equipment) show a sensitivity of 35nV/(W/m2) and a limit detection of the E-field of 23V/m due to a significant amount of noise. Future perspectives are put forward to increase the sensitivity.
ISSN:0924-4247
1873-3069
DOI:10.1016/j.sna.2013.01.014