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Optical sensors are a broad class of device for detecting light intensity. This can be just a simple component for notifying when ambient light levels rise above or fall below a prescribed level, or a highly sensitive device for detecting single photons. Most optical sensors produce an electrical output.
A single-shot upconversion imaging method enables wide-field lifetime mapping of microneedle tattoos in vivo, resolving temperature with subdegree resolution at submillimetre scales and supporting the early detection of micro-melanomas.
A mode-selective Raman quantum memory in warm caesium vapour enables super-resolved optical frequency estimation with a 34-fold precision enhancement beyond direct intensity measurements.
A Q-modulated refractometric sensing mechanism implemented in a bound-state-in-the-continuum metasurface enables the detection of lung cancer extracellular vesicles with a limit of detection down to 24 aM and high clinical diagnostic accuracy in human serum.
Tianzhou-9 carried an extravehicular dual-comb absolute-ranging payload to Tiangong space station, demonstrating sustained on-orbit kHz-level updates and micrometer-level precision in absolute ranging.
A miniaturized on-chip spectral imager based on III-nitride cascaded photodiodes achieves 0.62 nm accuracy and sub-10 ns response, extending spectral imaging into the ultraviolet regime.
