Let there be light! New tech allows people to see in the dark

Nanowerk  June 10, 2021 Conventional infrared imaging technologies require the use of materials such as narrow bandgap semiconductors, which are sensitive to thermal noise and often require cryogenic cooling. An international team of researchers (Australia, Italy, UK, Germany, France, Bulgaria) developed and demonstrated a proof-of-concept compact all-optical device to perform infrared imaging in a metasurface composed of GaAs semiconductor nanoantennas using a nonlinear wave-mixing process. Experimentally they showed the upconversion of short-wave infrared wavelengths via the coherent parametric process of sum-frequency generation. In this process, an infrared image of a target is mixed inside the metasurface with a strong pump […]