Applications long dominated by expensive, bulky technology are now becoming possible at a fraction of the price. From machine vision to gas detection, sensors that tap into infrared (IR) wavelengths are growing more accessible by the day, enabling cameras to “see” beyond the visible and harness vast quantities of data. As demand for IR sensing grows over the next decade, the technology powering this breakthrough—quantum dots (QDs)—is only becoming more advanced, bringing high-performance capability hurtling into the market.
The quantum revolution is truly underway.
QDs are nanoscale semiconducting materials that absorb and emit different wavelengths of light depending on their size. The key to controlling QD growth is how they are produced. Most are made using long-chain organic ligand exchange, which helps them to keep their colloidal stability when immersed in solvents. Because they measure just a few atoms wide, QDs benefit from an increased quantum confinement effect. In principle, this means QDs act as a small semiconductor box and, as the size of this box shrinks, the quantum confinement effect increases and band gap between the valence state and conduction band is increased. Tuning the size of QDs results in extremely tunable absorption and emission wavelengths.
High-performance QDs can be tuned to absorb and emit light all the way from the visible, through near- and short-wave IR (NIR and SWIR) to mid-wave IR (MWIR). This grants them unmatched flexibility across multiple spectra and outstanding sensitivity, particularly for SWIR sensing applications—matching or surpassing the best widely available alternatives.
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