[ Instrument Network Instrument Development ] It is reported that some snakes can "see" everything at night by sensing infrared radiation. Researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) are working on bionic snake vision. , constantly improve the sensitivity of night vision cameras.
Enhancing the performance of night vision cameras will make it possible to improve the observable content information for space exploration, chemical and biological disaster areas, and battlefields.
Recently, UCF researchers published their latest developments in night vision research in Nature Communications magazine.
Debashis Chanda, associate professor at the UCF Nanotechnology Center, is the lead researcher for the study. He said: "With our infrared detectors, you can get more information from the objects being observed in the dark."
"For example, at night, you look at someone with a night vision goggle. Because the body emits infrared radiation, you can see the infrared image of his whole body. There may be hidden weapons on him, which can emit infrared light of different wavelengths. But even if you use the expensive cryogenic infrared camera currently on the market, you can't see it."
However, the infrared detector developed by Chanda and his team does not require liquid nitrogen to cool it to minus 196 degrees Celsius, and has sufficient sensitivity to detect different infrared wavelengths. Second, it runs much faster than existing night vision cameras, although the latter does not require cooling, but images are slower.
In the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelength of light that the human eye can perceive is about 400 to 700 nanometers, which is the so-called visible spectrum.
In this study, Chanda and his team studied longer wavelengths that extend to the infrared region of approximately 16,000 nanometers.
UCF developed infrared detectors to distinguish different wavelengths in the infrared region that is invisible to the human eye. Therefore, it can distinguish different objects according to their different emission wavelengths.
Current night vision cameras cannot distinguish objects based on the difference in wavelength of infrared radiation, but only cluster all the wavelengths together. Therefore, even through a different lens, even a few different objects can only see one whole.
Chanda said: "This study is the first real implementation of a dynamically adjustable infrared detector spectral response, or in other words, you can choose the infrared 'color' you want to see."
Chanda also said: "With this new technology, in addition to the standard night vision color (green, orange or black), we can also specify other infrared 'colors' to represent objects that reflect different wavelengths of infrared light."
For astronomers, this means that it is possible to use new telescopes to view information that was previously invisible in the infrared; in chemical and biological disaster areas, this means that the spectrum can be used to monitor the pollution of the gas in the area. The object, for example, is based on the specific absorption of infrared light and chemical molecules to determine whether there is carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.
The trick to developing this new, highly sensitive, non-refrigerated infrared detector is to transform the two-dimensional nanomaterial graphene into a conductive material.
Researchers have designed this material into an asymmetrical structure so that when the absorbed light strikes different parts of the material, a temperature difference is created, which causes the electrons to flow from one side to the other, creating a voltage.
Michael N. Leuenberger, professor of the UFC Nanoscience Technology Center, the School of Optics and Photonics, and the Department of Physics, is the co-author of the study, and the model he developed also validated the process.
The developer tests the ability of the infrared detector to capture images by one pixel at a time.
Although the commercialization of the infrared detector is still in demand for a while, it is believed that one day it will be integrated into cameras and telescopes.
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