Study on the thermal imaging application of quantum cascade detectors

•A 2D mechanical scanning imaging system was constructed based on a 9.3 μm QCD.•The Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference for this imaging system is about 102.6 mK.•Thermal images of an electric soldering iron and a projection lamp are obtained.•Our research provides a proof-of-concept demonstration of IR imaging with QCDs.

A 2D mechanical scanning setup was constructed, and was used to evaluate the potential of quantum cascade detector (QCD) for IR imaging. The peak responsivity of the studied QCD is 22.3 mA/W at 9.3 μm, and the Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) reaches 6.7×10-10W/Hz at temperature of 82 K. The Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD) for this imaging system is estimated to be 102.6 mK. With this experimental setup, thermal images of an operating electric soldering iron and a projection lamp at about 310 K are obtained. The image of the projection lamp demonstrates the feasibility of human body imaging with this QCD. Our research provides a proof-of-concept demonstration of thermal imaging with QCDs and displays that QCDs are potentially useful for thermal imaging applications.