Want Infrared Vision Like Superman? Graphene Contact Lenses

[frigidmagi]

IBTimes

If you've always dreamed of having infrared vision like a superhero, your wish could soon come true as engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have invented the world's first room-temperature light detector that can see infrared light.

The researchers have invented a new detector the size of a fingernail that they say can be integrated with contact lenses or a mobile phone.

Infrared light is tricky to see as it requires a combination of technologies that are able to detect near-, mid- and far-infrared radiation all at once. Usually, mid- and far-infrared sensors have be at very cold temperatures.

Graphene would be a possible option as it consists of a single layer of carbon atoms that can sense the whole infrared spectrum, but until now, the material hasn't been able to capture enough light to generate an electrical signal so that it can sense it.

"The challenge for the current generation of graphene-based detectors is that their sensitivity is typically very poor. It's a hundred to a thousand times lower than what a commercial device would require," said Zhaohui Zhong, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan.

To solve the challenge, Zhong and his colleagues have designed a new detector that places an insulating barrier layer between two graphene sheets. When light hits the top sheet, electrons are freed which create positively-charged holes.

The electrons then slip through the barrier layer onto the bottom layer of graphene and produce an electric field which effects the flow of electricity and enables the light to be detected.

"Our work pioneered a new way to detect light. We envision that people will be able to adopt this same mechanism in other material and device platforms," said Zhong.

"If we integrate it with a contact lens or other wearable electronics, it expands your vision. It provides you another way of interacting with your environment."

The University of Michigan researchers' work appears in a study entitled "Graphene photodetectors with ultra-broadband and high responsivity at room temperature" in the Nature Nanotechnology online journal.

Okay, this is fucking sorcery and y'all know it!

[rhoenix]

Yes, I have to agree - carbon is seriously being more and more obvious as the dark magic element of the universe.

[Josh]

Shit I knew that from back when we used carbon paper to copy with.

I bet you can barely find those anymore.

[Batman]

I don't know about the US but around here it isn't so much a case of 'barely' but 'what in Valen's name are you talking about'?

I'd ask you why Carbon Copy paper was Dark Magic (as opposed to just being inconvenient as hell compared to what we can do nowadays) but I have this dastardly feeling you'd actually tell me.

[Josh]

I was strongly tempted to tell you anyway, but I'll wait for an appropriately villainous moment.

[Batman]

You do know the Archenemy job is already taken, right?

[Josh]

You do know the Archenemy job is already taken, right?

That's fine. Your archenemy was Joker for a long time, then Bane came along, then Allen. To all things in time.

I'll probably break it out whenever I get around to abducting the latest Robin.

[Batman]

Josh the latest Robin was Damian until DC apparently killed him. You abducting him would've relieved both me and Allen of the need to deal with him.

[Josh]

Oh, like you won't find a replacement.

[Batman]

Yes. I'd just give the job back to Tim. The point was we not only wouldn't give a damn but would probably throw a party if you abducted Damian (once he's not dead anymore which is depressingly likely). Because, you see, then he'd be your problem.

[Josh]

I honestly don't even know anything about Damian. Tim was the last one I paid attention to, but you go through them so regularly that it's hard to keep track of your decoys.

[Batman]

I made Dick last more than 40 years and Tim more than 20, and both of them are up and about and have their own careers. Heck even the two that got killed are still up and about - granted, Jason used to be a supervillain, but we're talking superhero comics (and he did get dunked in a Lazarus Pit which is known to have side effects).

I'm nevertheless flattered that you if nobody else accepted the 'decoy' explanation for why I have a Robin.

[Josh]

It's been quite a while (over twenty-odd years) but the Batman spoof on Tiny Toons had Batduck's sidekick named 'Decoy, the Pig Hostage.'

I tried to find it on Youtube, to no avail.

"A protege. Someone to teach, someone to nurture, someone to wear a costume in bright primary colors to draw all the fire." (Paraphrased from memory, natch.)

[Batman]

Not quite what I was getting at but yes, the principle's the same.

[LadyTevar]

Shit I knew that from back when we used carbon paper to copy with.

I bet you can barely find those anymore.

Nope, still being used in Death Certificates in WV

[Batman]

You gotta be fucking kidding me. why in Valen's name? Please don't tell me you don't have the budget for a copier.

[LadyTevar]

You gotta be fucking kidding me. why in Valen's name? Please don't tell me you don't have the budget for a copier.

Because a Death Certificate is a form filled out in Quintuplicate, and it's nice to only have to type things up once. That way, the State has their copy, the County a copy, the burial permit and funeral home copy go to the funeral home, and finally the State Medical Examiner has a copy.

Unless you were confusing Carbon Paper for Mimeograph sheets, which were an old way to copy paper prior to Xerox. If you're talking that kind of copy, we have copiers that make front&back copies with pre-programmed datestamp and signatures

[Batman]

Are we talking actual mechanical typewriters?

[LadyTevar]

Are we talking actual mechanical typewriters?

*eyes Batman*
Yes... actual ribbon & key typewriters. Or, the funeral homes are lazy and hand-write it out in black ink. Did you think it was hi-tech?

[Josh]

The county tax assessor here still uses mechanical typewriters, for vehicle title transfers.

[Batman]

The mechanical typewriter in the office back during my Army time made me go 'you're kidding, right?' and that was 20+ years ago so yes, I'd have expected something more high tech. Not necessarily a 12 THz Octocore with LCARS but yes something involving a PC and a printer.

[Josh]

It's very jarring to go in there and hear the clack clacks of typewriters. I watch those ladies scrolling up the cards and stuff to type on them and I flash back to my own typing classes in frigging high school.

I do not miss the mechanical typewriter, I do not miss it at all.

[LadyTevar]

Now, that's just the Deaths, mind you.

The Birth Certificates are data-entered, printed out, signed by the doctor/attendant, and then mailed into our office. As the hospital prints off the Birth, it is also uploaded to a central database in our office. That way we know there has been a birth, and we can track when the physical copy makes it to our office and gets signed, numbered, and filed.

Deaths we've yet to figure out how to do that. Too many funeral homes, too many doctors who could sign them, etc.