Australian scientists bypass the complicated technology of conventional night vision devices by coating them with nanocrystals.
Night vision devices turn night into day, they have become indispensable in the military. But it is still unwieldy and expensive devices that use electronics to transform the darkness into a visible image. Another problem with this: For a good result, the inner workings of the devices must be cooled down significantly. No wonder these devices are expensive and bulky.
Scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) are now taking a completely different path. A thin coating with the semiconductor gallium arsenide should do the same thing. The material converts “invisible” infrared rays into visible light. It is still a proof of concept. In 2016, the team succeeded in placing these nanocrystals on a glass surface for the first time. A pattern was then made of tiny crystals that together form a film. Now the scientists have produced a prototype version of this film that is light, cheap and easy to mass-produce.
Little technology in the night vision goggles
“We made the invisible visible,” says lead researcher Dr. Rocio Camacho Morales. “Our technology is able to convert infrared light, which is normally invisible to the human eye, into images that humans can see clearly – even from a distance. We have made a very thin film that is made of crystals in the Nanometer range, a hundred times thinner than a human hair, which can be applied directly to glasses and acts as a filter so that one can see in the dark of night. ”
“Conventional night vision goggles work by picking up infrared light as well,” says Camacho Morales. “This infrared light is converted into electrons and displayed digitally. In our case, we don’t do that.” In order to achieve a uniform image, night vision devices require complex cooling systems, which would also be superfluous. “We avoid the problems of having to cool down the camera and display devices,” says Camacho Morales.
The film has a simple, tiny laser, like the one found in laser pointers, which illuminates the nanocrystals and makes them glow. In this way, the film creates “visible images that can be seen in the dark”.
It doesn’t get colored
The researchers believe the material could become a cheap and easy replacement for the bulky night vision goggles used in military, police and security facilities today. Ultimately, it would be little more than coated glasses. If a person wore glasses with the movie during the day, they could still see everything that they normally see with the naked eye, according to Morales. “In addition, you would see some infrared information.”
You can go home in the dark at night without much effort, and it is also conceivable to coat car windows with the material. The sensory impression, however, remains the same as with the known night vision devices. The result is no “beautiful” multicolored picture, as we are used to during the day. The impulses of the infrared range are translated into a single color – typically green.
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