US 12,287,239 B2
Integrated optical field sampling platform
Marco Turchetti, Cambridge, MA (US); Mina Bionta, Somerville, MA (US); Felix Ritzkowsky, Hamburg (DE); Yujia Yang, Vaud (CH); Dario Cattozzo Mor, Desenzano del Garda (IT); William Putnam, Martinez, CA (US); Franz X. Kaertner, Hamburg (DE); Karl K. Berggren, Arlington, MA (US); and Phillip Donald Keathley, Natick, MA (US)
Assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US); The Regents of the University of California, Oakland, CA (US); and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchotron DESY, Hamburg (DE)
Filed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US); The Regents of the University of California, Oakland, CA (US); and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrontron DESY, Hamburg (DE)
Filed on Sep. 10, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/471,758.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/076,463, filed on Sep. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2024/0369407 A1, Nov. 7, 2024
Int. Cl. G01J 1/44 (2006.01); B82Y 20/00 (2011.01); G02B 6/122 (2006.01)
CPC G01J 1/44 (2013.01) [B82Y 20/00 (2013.01); G01J 2001/4446 (2013.01); G02B 6/1226 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of detection of an incident optical signal including a set of incident pulses, comprising:
applying, to a set of optical detectors formed on a substrate, a driving optical signal including a set of driving pulses, wherein each optical detector of the set of optical detectors includes:
an antenna electrode configured as a cathode and having a tip shaped to enhance a local electric field generated in response to the driving optical signal; and
a wire electrode configured as an anode and positioned such that the tip of antenna electrode and the wire electrode generate a photocurrent therebetween via tunneling in response to the driving optical signal;
applying, to the set of optical detectors, the incident optical signal with variable delay with respect to the driving optical signal to modulate the photocurrent from each optical detector of the set of optical detectors as a function of the variable delay;
detecting, via a current detector coupled to the set of optical detectors, an integrated photocurrent based on the photocurrent from each antenna electrode of the set of optical detectors; and
detecting a presence of the incident optical signal in response to the integrated photocurrent exceeding a predetermined threshold,
wherein a separation between the tip of the antenna electrode and the wire electrode for each detector is selected such that, in an absence of the driving optical signal, no photocurrent is generated between that antenna electrode and that wire electrode.