Study of conductive polymer PEDOT: PSS for infrared thermal detection

Abstract

We study a conductive polymer PEDOT: PSS for infrared thermal detection. We propose to use PEDOT: PSS simultaneously as the thermal sensitive material, infrared absorption layer, thermal insulation layer, as well as the electrical connection material. We demonstrate theoretically and confirm experimentally that PEDOT: PSS has a high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of ∼0.6%/K at room temperature, which is comparable to those inorganic materials commonly used in commercial bolometers. We then experimentally characterize the infrared absorption of a thin PEDOT: PSS film, and we find that it has considerable absorption (over 0.2) in a broad range even with a film as thin as 100nm. This is beneficial to reduce the thermal capacitance and thereby increase the response speed. Finally, we characterize the infrared response of PEDOT: PSS film, and the detectivity is found to be 2×108 cmHz1/2/W. This work is especially inspirational in the design and fabrication of versatile, and highly integrated sensors and detectors, as well as other polymer-based devices and systems.