Patent ID: 9297638
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: B82Y,G01B,G01N,G01V,H01L,H01Q

Claim Text:
1. A two-path plasmonic interferometer, comprising: a layer providing a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) or two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG); a source and a drain at opposing ends of the 2DEG or 2DHG layer; a source-side gate, a central gate, and a drain-side gate disposed on and separated from the 2DEG or 2DHG layer; and a voltage source for applying a voltage independently to each of the gates to spatially modulate the electron or hole density in the 2DEG or 2DHG layer under each gate, thereby providing a source-side plasmonic path under the source-side gate and a drain-side plasmonic path under the drain-side gate and a plasmonic mixer under the central gate when the central gate is biased to near depletion; wherein a standing plasma wave from the source-side plasmonic path couples with a standing plasma wave from the drain-side plasmonic path interfere at the plasmonic mixer to provide a photoresponse when incident electromagnetic radiation is coupled to the 2DEG or 2DHG layer.