One day we could have everyday night vision goggles, thanks to an ultra-thin material that can capture both infrared and visible light at the same time.
In a new study published on May 23 Advanced materialsAustralian researchers have found that using “metasurface conversion technology” you can create a night vision effect without the need for bulky light processing components and cryogenic cooling.
“These results promise significant opportunities for the industries of tracking, autonomous navigation and bio-imaging, among others,” lead researcher Dragomir Neshev from the Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS). declaration. “Reducing the size, weight and power requirements of night vision technology is an example of how meta-optics and the work of TMOS is critical to Industry 4.0 and the future extreme miniaturization of technology.”
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Traditional night vision goggles work by passing visible light or infrared photons through the lens into an image intensifier tube consisting of a photocathode and a microchannel plate. The photocathode converts the photons into electrons, and these electrons then hit a microchannel plate that has millions of holes that amplify their number. The electrons then interact with the phosphor coated screen and exhibit a green glow that illuminates the scene the user is viewing.
The researchers explained that this current setup presents challenges due to its large size for a head-mounted device, thermal noise, and the inability to extend infrared and visible imaging.
However, by using an “ultra-compact, high-quality lithium niobate resonant metasurface”—a very thin photonic device that can modulate the behavior of electromagnetic waves—the researchers increased the energy of the infrared photons and increased their frequency so that their wavelengths entered the visual spectrum.
Let the light be visible
Because infrared photons pass through only a single resonant metasurface and are then mixed with the pump beam—the light source used to amplify the energy levels—night vision can be achieved without the need to convert photons to electrons. This then bypasses the need for more heavy optical and cooling components to reduce thermal noise; upconversion from IR to visible light via the metasurface occurs at room temperature.
Additionally, this up-conversion can capture both visible and invisible light in a single image, which standard night vision systems cannot because they must display images from each spectrum side by side. This leads to non-identical images. As such, the researchers found that their approach offers direct imaging and infrared edge detection simultaneously in a single view, increasing the overall night vision image quality.
The breakthrough opened the way to smaller, slimmer and more efficient night vision systems for a variety of applications, the researchers said. We could even see the arrival of night vision goggles or filters that could be worn over glasses to help people see at night. Uses can range from helping to track your dog on an evening walk to making driving safer at night.