Posted on 10/07/2020 9:11:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Army-funded research developed a new microwave radiation sensor with 100,000 times higher sensitivity than currently available commercial sensors. Researchers said better detection of microwave radiation will enable improved thermal imaging, electronic warfare, radio communications and radar.
Researchers published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. The team includes scientists from Harvard University, The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, and Raytheon BBN Technologies. The Army, in part, funded the work to fabricate this bolometer by exploiting the giant thermal response of graphene to microwave radiation.
“The microwave bolometer developed under this project is so sensitive that it is capable of detecting a single microwave photon, which is the smallest amount of energy in nature,” said Dr. Joe Qiu, program manager for solid-state electronics and electromagnetics, Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. “This technology will potentially enable new capabilities for applications such as quantum sensing and radar, and ensure the U.S. Army maintains spectral dominance in the foreseeable future.”
The graphene bolometer sensor detects electromagnetic radiation by measuring the temperature rise as the photons are absorbed into the sensor. Graphene is a two dimensional, one-atom layer thick material. The researchers achieved a high bolometer sensitivity by incorporating graphene in the microwave antenna.
A key innovation in this advancement is to measure the temperature rise by superconducting Josephson junction while maintaining a high microwave radiation coupling into the graphene through an antenna, researchers said. The coupling efficiency is essential in a high sensitivity detection because “every precious photon counts.”
A Josephson junction is a quantum mechanical device which is made of two superconducting electrodes separated by a barrier (thin insulating tunnel barrier, normal metal, semiconductor, ferromagnet, etc.)
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
Great, now all we need are room temperature superconductors to operate the detectors.
How many Chinese persons were working on this technology? And how soon will Beijing have this technology?
“U.S. Army Creates Sensor With 100,000 Times Higher Sensitivity – Improves Thermal Imaging, Electronic Warfare, Communications”
Wow!We haven’t given this technology over to the ChiComs yet. That’s amazing.
How long until Harbor Freight has a knockoff that works once and half as well?
I seriously hope & pray they have great security for this project to protect this tech from being stolen!
Even Russia, for being a 'friend' of CHina has been a repeated victim of their brazen and blatant thefts!
They have documented over 500 times that China has stolen technology from them.
It’s on Xi’s demand list to pal joey no doubt.
Maybe they won’t lose airliners now.
Cool!
I think you mean, “How hard are the Chinese trying to steal this technology?” A: Not very hard. All they have to do is bribe a DemocRat Senator or two.
The Army has a bolometer?
Run all the Generals in front of it.
Microwave bolometers have been around for decades. I’ve used them to measure millimeter-wave power. The difference is this one is small enough to make huge arrays of them, kind of like the image sensor in a camera.
If Harvard & MIT is in on it, then you know the ChiComs have a direct line into their research already.
Its almost as bad as a realtime screen capture that TikTok uses but with direct access to all the research notes and data.
“And how soon will Beijing have this technology?”
Weeks.
China probably had the technology before the Army announced it.
Whatever happened to thermal noise? This looks like a system that has to work at cryogenic temperatures but apparently doesn’t. I hope Mother Nature has not been violated.
“The team includes scientists from Harvard University, The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, and Raytheon BBN Technologies. “
“How many Chinese persons were working on this technology?”
Given that list? Lots. Guaranteed China has been kept up to date the entire time.
See more by 9AM than most people see all day.
More Star Trek tech comes alive every day!
I’d settle for Babylon 5 level.
No beaming but you can’t have everything.
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