Developments in infrared imaging

Infrared imagery demonstrated using a quantum dot camera could lead to coloured infrared imaging reports a paper published in Nature Communications this week. This work could serve as a basis for the future development of bio-inspired image sensors.

Infrared cameras are used for night vision and in medical diagnostics, but currently only present monochrome images. Quantum dot cameras can boost infrared imaging technology, detecting certain light frequencies with a high accuracy. Sanjay Krishna and colleagues demonstrate a monolithically intergrated plasmonic infrared quantum dot camera as a step towards coloured infrared imaging.

These findings pave the way for developing imagers that mimic those found in nature, such as the human eye. Such imagers use the combination of a powerful sensor and ultra-efficient data compression to detect colour, dynamic range and polarization at the pixel level.