Science Daily December 12, 2023 Currently, all available detectors for detecting long wave infrared (LWIR) light at room temperature operate on amplitude modulation (AM) and are limited in performance by AM noises, including Johnson noise, shot noise, and background fluctuation noise. Researchers at the University of Central Florida have introduced a frequency modulation (FM)-based detection technique , which offers inherent robustness against different types of AM noises. The FM-based approach yields an outstanding room temperature noise equivalent power (NEP), response time, and detectivity (D*). According to the researchers this result promises a novel uncooled LWIR detection scheme that is highly […]
Tag Archives: Photon detectors
Detecting mid-infrared light, one photon at a time
Phys.org June 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – NIST, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MIT, UK) has developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on tungsten silicide. To compensate for the lower energy carried by IR light they reduced the density of electrons in the wires that are available to absorb the photons. With fewer electrons available, the fraction of the total photon energy absorbed by any one electron is likely to be higher, increasing the likelihood that the electron would have enough energy to cross the superconducting gap and generate a signal when IR photons strike the detector. They […]
Opto-thermoplasmonic patterning of 2D materials
Nanowerk August 14, 2018 To overcome problems associated with laser processing of high-quality micro- and nanopatterns of diverse two-dimensional (2D) materials, researchers at UT Austin have developed an all-optical lithographic technique called optothermoplasmonic nanolithography (OTNL) to achieve high-throughput, versatile, and maskless patterning of different atomic layers. Taking graphene and molybdenum disulfide they have shown that both thermal oxidation and sublimation in the light-directed temperature field can lead to direct etching of the atomic layers. They demonstrated that by steering the laser beams programmable patterning of 2D materials into complex and large-scale nanostructures is possible. The method can be applied to […]