U.S. Army Creates Sensor With 100,000 Times Higher Sensitivity – Improves Thermal Imaging, Electronic Warfare, Communications

Sci-Tech Daily ^ | October 5, 2020 | U.S. Army Research Laboratory

[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.)

[fella]

"Great, now all we need are room temperature superconductors to operate the detectors"

they've been in on it from the get go.

[webstersII]

What kind of things can you “see“ with microwave sensors?

[EinNYC]

Until the Chinese steal this technology.

[daniel1212]

Wow!We haven’t given this technology over to the ChiComs yet. That’s amazing.

No, the US just seems to vauntly advertise the newest tech so that China, Russia, Iran etc. will focus on developing it, this maybe requiring more funding to develop newer tech to advertise...