[Toadman]

Thanks for enhancing my knowledge! I have no formal physics education, just what I’ve gleaned on my own. If you don’t mind, a couple of questions:

So even long wave IR (e.g. 14um) emits photons? If so, do all em wavelengths emit photons?

I realize that bolometers measure temp differences but I haven’t seen one that covers shortwave IR (1 - 3 um) (at least that I’m aware of). Are you aware of any? FLIR makes a SW IR detector (InGaAs) that is limited to 1.7um (and relies on photons). Seems like breaking that barrier (1.7 to 3.0um) is a challenge (or maybe cost prohibitive). That’s ultimately why I find this article interesting. It would be quite a breakthrough if they’ve developed a capability for “see” shortwave IR sans utilizing photon emission. Especially in such a small platform.

Any further illumination (pardon the pun) on your part is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Cboldt]

All IR is photons. So is microwave, radio wave, etc. And at the energetic end, x-rays are photons too.