Infrared Detector Technology Development

About the NASA Postdoctoral Program

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description

Sensor systems based on high performance infrared (IR) detectors have made significant contributions to NASA’s Earth Science (e.g., observables related to Surface, Biology, and Geology) and Planetary Science missions (Io Observer, Lunar, Uranus), and to science in general. IR detectors are ubiquitous to almost all areas of measurement, and detector arrays flown on space missions have provided exquisite visual and scientific images, instrumental in advancing our understanding of our home planet and the universe around us. Our goal is to pursue the development of emerging detector technologies which promise extensions in sensitivity, resolution, array size and other figures of merit relevant to the full set of NASA Quests, while simultaneously decreasing their size, weight and power requirements (SWAP) so critical for space missions, as well as their cost.

Research Objectives

• Perform trade study to determine the best approach for the detector using advancements such as III-V heterostructure engineering
• Determine key metrics for success such as spectral range, SNR, operating temperature, pixel uniformity, operability, etc.
• Develop the necessary analysis and simulation to justify that the proposed approach has a reasonable chance of meeting the key metrics
• Develop and demonstrate proposed approach that is consistent with the analysis/simulation results. This include test detectors
• Analyze how environmental variables such as vibration, radiation environment, etc. may limit the usefulness of these IR detector in space environments

References

David Z. Ting, Alexander Soibel, Arezou Khoshakhlagh, Sir B. Rafol, Sam A. Keo, Linda Höglund, Anita M. Fisher, Edward M. Luong, and Sarath D. Gunapala, “Mid-wavelength high operating temperature barrier infrared detector and focal plane array”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 021101 (2018)

Shuyan Zhang, Alexander Soibel, Sam A. Keo, Daniel Wilson, Sir. B. Rafol, David Z. Ting, Alan She, Sarath D. Gunapala, and Federico Capasso, “Solid-immersion metalenses for infrared focal plane arrays”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 111104 (2018)

Location

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California

Field of Science

Earth Science

Advisors

Sarath Gunapala
email: sarath.d.gunapala@jpl.nasa.gov

Eligibility

Eligibility is currently open to:

• U.S. Citizens;
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR);
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status; and,
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Application Requirements

• Research proposal
• Three letters of recommendation
• Official doctoral transcript documents

Application Instructions

Please visit the NASA Postdoctoral Program website for application instructions and requirements: How to Apply | NASA Postdoctoral Program (orau.org)

Questions

If you have questions about this opportunity, please email npp@orau.org