Most sensitive image sensor

In May 2013, a team of scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore demonstrated a new type of image sensor that is 1,000 times more sensitive that the current sensors used in camera technology. Highly attuned to both visible and infrared light, it could be used in everything from consumer cameras to professional instruments – and even satellite imagers. The sensor gains this high photoresponse from its innovative structure: it is made from graphene, the super-strong-but-flexible carbon compound with a honeycomb structure that is more conductive than silicon (used in conventional camera sensors) and which resists heat better than a diamond. This is the first time that graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of the mineral graphite, has been used for broad-spectrum, highly photosensitive sensors. The best traditional silicon-based sensor can record images in light as low as 0.01 Lux (a candle-lit room), but the new sensor can record true “star-lit” scenes of only 0.00001 Lux owing to its exceptionally low noise and high sensitivity. It will be a few years before the technology is commercially available, but it will revolutionize imaging in the near future.