Seeing Photons: Progress and Limits of Visible and Infrared Sensor Arrays (Progress and Limits of Visible and Infrared Sensor Arrays)

"The Department of Defense recently highlighted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities as a top priority for U.S. warfighters. Contributions provided by ISR assets in the operational theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan have been widely documented in press reporting. While the United States continues to increase investments in ISR capabilities, other nations not friendly to the United States will continue to seek countermeasures to U.S. capabilities. The Technology Warning Division of the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Defense Warning Office (DWO) has the critical responsibility, in collaborations with other components of the intelligence community (IC), for providing U.S. policymakers insight into technological developments that may impact future U.S. warfighting capabilities. To this end, the IC requested that the National Research Council (NRC) investigate and report on key visible and infrared detector technologies, with potential military utility, that are likely to be developed in the next 10-15 years. This study is the eighth in a series sponsored by the DWO and executed under the auspices of the NRC TIGER (Technology Insight-Gauge, Evaluate, and Review) Standing Committee."--Publisher's description FrontMatter......Page 1 Preface......Page 7 Acknowledgment of Reviewers......Page 9 Contents......Page 11 Acronyms......Page 17 Summary......Page 21 1 National Security Context of Detector Technologies......Page 29 2 Fundamentals of Ultraviolet, Visible, and Infrared Detectors......Page 43 3 Key Current Technologies and Evolutionary Developments......Page 80 4 Emerging Technologies with Potentially Significant Impacts......Page 111 5 The Global Landscape of Detector Technologies......Page 154 Appendixes......Page 173 Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members......Page 175 Appendix B: Meetings and Participating Organizations......Page 183 Appendix C: Background Information on Radiation Hardening for Detectors......Page 187