Black Silicon Used For Surveillance? 56
An anonymous reader writes "For the past decade, 'black silicon' has been touted as a way to make super-sensitive image sensors and ultra-efficient solar cells. That's because the material — silicon wafers treated with sulfur gases and femtosecond laser pulses — is much better at absorbing photons and releasing electrons than conventional silicon, at least over certain wavelengths. In 2008, Harvard spinoff SiOnyx went public with its plans to commercialize black silicon. But what happened to those plans? Today SiOnyx revealed in another exclusive that it has raised new venture financing from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and other big investors. It also has formed a key strategic partnership to scale up manufacturing of black silicon — and go after markets in security, surveillance, automotive, consumer devices, and medical imaging."
Not having RTFA (Score:1, Interesting)
But having some years as lab physicist, could someone add if the S is SF6, and at what lambda? At what W over what area?
Nightvision? (Score:3, Interesting)
Any questions? (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Any questions? (Score:3, Interesting)
- What wavelengths does this material respond too/detect? Could it be modified/designed to image UV/Vis/IR?
- How linear is the response function, or perhaps would it require an exotic calibration procedure to translate photons into radiance?
Thank you for volunteering to answer questions and good luck in your academic endeavors! I wish I was in graduate school now and was positioned to work in this domain.