In addition to long-range optical communications, larger arrays could be fabricated for single-photon imaging in the infrared and visible spectra with applications to security cameras, imaging of non-cooperative targets, single-molecule detection, integration into micro fluidic devices, biochips for biomedical applications, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, underwater imaging to many attenuation depths, as well as laser Doppler imaging and optical tomography in medical applications and cancer research. Due to their extremely short integration time, infrared photon-counting arrays could find applications in high-speed imaging.
The novel photon counting array has the advantage of using high-volume manufacturing processing to yield compact, reliable detectors for space communications. These arrays will find application in free-space optical communications, space-ground optical links, detection or imaging in media with high turbidity, interferometry, mapping, robotic vision, very high-resolution 3-D imaging, hyper-spectral imaging, and space docking.
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