“From helping doctors detect cancer to guiding self-driving cars through traffic, many modern imaging systems rely on near-infrared light, producing a crisp picture when visible light would scatter and yield a blurry picture. But near-infrared systems struggle when light passes through materials like deep tissue or dense fog, succumbing to the same scattering effect where photons deviate from their path. Existing near-infrared imaging systems also rely on specialized detectors made from expensive materials, limiting their affordability and widespread use.

University of Rochester researchers have now developed a lower-cost imaging system that overcomes both challenges. Using inexpensive silicon-based detectors, the system quickly converts near-infrared light to visible light while producing clearer images through these difficult environments. The technology, outlined in a recent Nature Communications paper, uses a technique called time-gating that the laboratory of Robert Boyd, the William F. Krupke Distinguished Professor in Optics, has spent more than a decade refining."”

From University of Rochester.