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UCF researcher Debashis Chanda, a professor at UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 NanoScience Technology Center, has developed a new technique to detect long wave infrared (LWIR) photons of different wavelengths or 麻豆精品 S渃olors. 麻豆精品 S�

The research was recently published in Nano Letters, an esteemed scholarly journal published by the American Chemical Society.

The findings are the result of a $1.5 million project funded through the Extreme Photon Imaging Capabilities program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that was awarded nearly two years ago.

The new detection and imaging technique will have applications in analyzing materials by their spectral properties, or spectroscopic imaging, as well as thermal imaging applications.

Humans perceive primary and secondary colors but not infrared light. Scientists hypothesize that animals like snakes or nocturnal species can detect various wavelengths in the infrared almost like how humans perceive colors.

Infrared, specifically LWIR, detection at room temperature has been a long-standing challenge due to the weak photon energy, Chanda says.

LWIR detectors can be broadly classified into either cooled or uncooled detectors, the researcher says.

Cooled detectors excel in high detectivity and fast response times but their reliance on cryogenic cooling significantly escalates their cost and restricts their practical applications.

In contrast, uncooled detectors, like microbolometers, can function at room temperature and come at a relatively lower cost but exhibit lower sensitivity and slower response times, Chanda says.

Both kinds of LWIR detectors lack the dynamic spectral tunability, and so they can 麻豆精品 S檛 distinguish photon wavelengths of different 麻豆精品 S渃olors. 麻豆精品 S�

Chanda and his team of postdoctoral scholars sought to expand beyond the limitations of existing LWIR detectors, so they worked to demonstrate a highly sensitive, efficient and dynamically tunable method based on a nanopatterned graphene.

Tianyi Guo听 麻豆精品 S�23笔丑顿 is the lead author of the research. Guo completed his doctoral degree at UCF in 2023 under Chanda 麻豆精品 S檚 mentorship. He is the recipient of an international thesis award from Springer Nature and his thesis exploring potential LWIR detection methods was published in the high-impact听Springer Theses听book series.

This newly discovered method is the culmination of the research that Guo, Chanda and others in Chanda 麻豆精品 S檚 lab have performed, Chanda says.

麻豆精品 S淣o present cooled or uncooled detectors offer such dynamic spectral tunability and ultrafast response, 麻豆精品 S� Chanda says. 麻豆精品 S淭his demonstration underscores the potential of engineered monolayer graphene LWIR detectors operating at room temperature, offering high sensitivity as well as dynamic spectral tunability for spectroscopic imaging. 麻豆精品 S�

The detector relies on a temperature difference in materials (known as the Seebeck effect) within an asymmetrically patterned graphene film. Upon light illumination and interaction, the patterned half generates hot carriers with greatly enhanced absorption while the unpatterned half remains cool. The diffusion of the hot carriers creates a photo-thermoelectric voltage and is measured between the source and drain electrodes.

By patterning the graphene into a specialized array, the researchers achieved an enhanced absorption and can further electrostatically tune within the LWIR spectra range and provide better infrared detection. The detector significantly surpasses the capabilities of the conventional uncooled infrared detectors 麻豆精品 S� also known as microbolometers.

麻豆精品 S淭he proposed detection platform paves the path for a new generation of uncooled graphene-based LWIR photodetectors for wide ranging applications such as consumer electronics, molecular sensing and space to name a few, 麻豆精品 S� Chanda says.

Researchers from Chanda 麻豆精品 S檚 group include postdoctoral scholars Aritra Biswas 麻豆精品 S�21MS 麻豆精品 S�24PhD, Sayan Chandra, Arindam Dasgupta, and Muhammad Waqas听Shabbir 麻豆精品 S�16MS 麻豆精品 S�21PhD.

Licensing Opportunity

The technology is patented. For more information about licensing this technology, please visit the .

Researchers 麻豆精品 S� Credentials:

Chanda has joint appointments in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 NanoScience Technology Center, Department of Physics and CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics. He received his doctorate in photonics from the University of Toronto and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined UCF in Fall 2012.

Guo joined UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 physics doctoral program in the fall of 2017 and graduated in fall 2023. He received his bachelor 麻豆精品 S檚 of science in 2015 from the University of Science and Technology of China. Guo currently is a postdoctoral researcher in Chanda 麻豆精品 S檚 group at UCF.