Pixelless thermal imaging with integrated quantum-well infrared photodetector and light-emitting diode

A large pixelless thermal imager based on the epitaxial integration of a GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-well infrared photodetector and a GaAs light-emitting diode is demonstrated. The device transforms a mid-infrared (9 μm) scene to a near-infrared (0.82 μm) emission image with a temperature resolution of /spl sim/1 K, limited by the integration capacity of the near-visible camera.