Graphene-based bolometer runs at ultrafast speeds

A new graphene-based bolometer has been created by Dmitri Efetov and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A bolometer measures the power of incident electromagnetic radiation and the team says that the new device is much faster and more sensitive than current bolometers – and does not need to be chilled to ultracold temperatures. It could have a wide variety of applications, including heat monitoring in buildings, astronomical observations and quantum information processing.

Conventional bolometers measure the power of incident electromagnetic radiation by measuring temperature changes in a metal sheet as it absorbs energy from the radiation. This setup has important limitations; no matter what metal is used, the bolometer will have a limited sensitivity, and will only be able to detect radiation with wavelengths within certain ranges. Furthermore, in order to achieve a reasonable signal-to-noise ratio, the metal sheet must be connected to a thermal reservoir that is maintained at ultralow temperatures – which makes the devices expensive to run.

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https://physicsworld.com/a/graphene-based-bolometer-runs-at-ultrafast-speeds/

Source: Physics World