NYU develops eco-friendly way to see in the dark
Advances in infrared sensor performance have allowed dramatic strides in night vision systems, with quantum dots emerging as promising materials for IR detection.
These materials often involve the use of environmentally unfriendly materials, however, with the presence of mercury or lead meaning they cannot easily conform to increasingly strict environmental regulations.
This regulatory pressure has slowed the broader adoption of infrared detectors across civilian applications, just as demand in fields like autonomous vehicles, medical imaging and national security is accelerating, according to a project at New York University (NYU) that has developed a possible answer.
The breakthrough, discussed in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, involves the design and manufacture of more environmentally friendly colloidal quantum dots to detect infrared light without relying on restricted materials.