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Antidisturbance near-infrared-imaging detection based on an arrayed Si-based nanotip optical antenna

Taige Liu1,2,*, Zhe Wang1,2,*, Xuan Shao1,2, Fangchen You1,2, Zongtao Chen1,2, Kewei Liu1,2, Mao Ye1,2, Haiwei Wang3, and Xinyu Zhang1,2,†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: x_yzhang@hust.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 024071 – Published 23 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/grxf-mpr4

Abstract

An arrayed silicon-based nanotip optical antenna (NOA) architecture for guiding efficient near-infrared imaging detection is proposed. The NOA can be effectively actuated based on the geometric field enhancement due to the tip effect and the patterned redistribution of the surface net charges, leading to a highly localized electron accumulation at the tips, a strong field electron emission away from the tips, and continuously visible cathodoluminescence. The photoelectronic response measurements reveal an effective spectral transformation from the initial infrared region to the visible band with a central wavelength of 544 nm. Spectral characterized analyses exhibit a strong electric-field amplitude gain of 84.77 at 1000 nm and an ultralow radiation transmittance of less than 2% across a broad wavelength range from 400 nm to 14 µm. The measured output electric signal is sensitive to the incident radiation, reaching a high value of 186.05 mV under illumination of 2.47 W. The photoelectric measurements indicate an intense output voltage signal with a nanosecond-level time interval between adjacent output peaks and a shorter duration of a single peak in both the visible and near-infrared regions. The point-spread function of the emitted light beams away from a single nanotip presents a remarkably strengthened and expanded nanofocusing, which means a notable arrayed light-field enhancement in the Si-based NOA configuration. A nanotip-based imaging detector (NID) architecture has been effectively constructed by closely coupling a common complementary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor array with a compact Si-based NOA chip. An obvious improvement in the imaging performance has been realized using the NID construction with a wider radiation response range.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 024071– Published 23 February, 2026
  • Received 18 August 2025
  • Revised 12 November 2025
  • Accepted 13 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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