July 2024 Vacuum Deposition Blog
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July 19, 2024
Revolutionary Thin Film May Give Glasses a Night Vision Feature 
Researchers recently discovered a new approach to night vision technology, one that involves an ultra-light infrared filter that is only nanometers thick. The infrared filter was developed by researchers from TMOS, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems.  Today, night vision technology is mainly used by the military or hunting enthusiasts. It is just impractical for night vision technology to be incorporated into everyday life, mainly due to the devices’ weight and clunkiness. Yet, night vision devices can serve important everyday functions such as improving safety of night time activities such as driving, biking, or walking. Traditional night vision technology in use today requires infrared photons to pass through a lens. Then they would meet a photocathode that would help in transforming these photons into electrons. A phosphor screen then converts the electrons back to photons and these photons produce an intensely visible image that is visible to the human eye. New technology that places an ultra-light infrared filter on the eyewear can allow the user to see infrared and visible light spectrum at the same time. Regarding the development of the filter, the study’s author Rocio Camacho Morales said, “This is the first demonstration of high-resolution up-conversion imaging from 1550 nm infrared to visible 550 nm light in a non-local metasurface. We chose these wavelengths because 1550 nm, an infrared light, is commonly used for telecommunications, and 550 nm is visible light to which human eyes are highly sensitive.” Learn more about this topic here.