The advent of microelectromechanic system (MEMS) technologies and nanotechnologies has resulted
in a multitude of structures and devices with ultra compact dimensions and with vastly enhanced
or even completely novel properties. In the field of photonics it resulted in the appearance of
new paradigms including photonic crystals that exhibit photonic bandgap and represent an
optical analog of semiconductors and metamaterials that have subwavelength features and may
have almost arbitrary values of effective refractive index including those below zero. In
addition to that a whole new field of plasmonics appeared dedicated to the manipulation with
evanescent surface-bound electromagnetic waves and offering an opportunity to merge
nanoelectronics with all-optical circuitry. In the field of infrared technologies MEMS and
nanotechnologies ensured the appearance of a new generation of silicon-based thermal detectors
with properties vastly surpassing the conventional thermal devices. However another family of
infrared detectors photonic devices based on narrow-bandgap semiconductors has traditionally
been superior to thermal detectors. Literature about their micro and nanophotonic enhancement
has been scarce and scattered through journals. This book offers the first systematic approach
to numerous different MEMS and nanotechnology-based methods available for the improvement of
photonic infrared detectors and points out to a path towards uncooled operation with the
performance of cryogenically cooled devices. It is shown that a vast area for enhancement does
exists and that photonic devices can readily keep their leading position in infrared detection.
The various methods and approaches described in the book are also directly applicable to
different other types of photodetectors like solar cells often with little or no modification.
