System for storing and using energy quantum mechanically includes an electronic device that produces heat while operating. A quantum heat engine can be in thermal contact with and electrically connected to the electronic device. The heat produced by the electronic device can dissipate to the quantum heat engine. The quantum heat engine can induce a current to bias the electronic device. Methods for storing and using memory resource to convert heat into electrical work, coherence capacitors, methods for quantum energy storage, and quantum heat engines, are also disclosed.

A sensor or receiver array includes first and second pyroelectrically active electrodes formed of polyvinylidene difluoride and separated by a spacer layer that acts to electrically separate the pyroelectric layers while keeping them close enough such that they see effectively the same vibration or background acoustic excitation while maintaining sufficient separation to ensure that they generate significant differences in their pyroelectric responses. The structure provides two distinct signals (at separate timestamps), the difference between which provides a more accurate signal. An ultrasound detection system includes the tri-laminar sensor, disposed within a detection zone in which a test element can be positioned. The apparatus includes a processing unit, which comprises a detector unit coupled to the first and second pyroelectric elements and configured to derive a differential signal from the first and second pyroelectric elements. A processor is coupled to the detector unit and is configured to generate an electrical output waveform on the basis of the data extracted from first and second pyroelectric elements.

Thermal pattern sensor including a matrix of multiple rows and columns of pixels, each pixel comprising: - a pyroelectric capacitor comprising a pyroelectric portion positioned between lower and upper electrodes, in which a first of these electrodes forms a readout electrode; and a heating element that is capable of heating the pyroelectric portion of said pixel; and in which: - for each row of pixels, the heating elements are capable of heating the pyroelectric portion of the pixels of the row independently of the heating elements of the pixels of the other rows; and for each column of pixels, the readout electrodes of each pixel are electrically linked to one another and are formed by a first electrically conductive portion that makes contact with the pyroelectric portions of the pixels of the column, and that is separate from the first portions of the other columns.

A monolithically integrated, tunable infrared pixel comprises a combined broadband detector and graphene-enabled tunable metasurface filter that operate as a single solid-state device with no moving parts. Functionally, tunability results from the plasmonic properties of graphene that are acutely dependent upon the carrier concentration within the infrared. Voltage induced changes in graphene's carrier concentration can be leveraged to change the metasurface filter's transmission thereby altering the colors of light reaching the broadband detector and hence its spectral responsivity. The invention enables spectrally agile infrared detection with independent pixel-to-pixel spectral tunability.

A device for guiding charge carriers and uses of the device are proposed, wherein the charge carriers are guided by means of a magnetic field along a curved or angled main path in a two-dimensional electron gas, in a thin superconducting layer or in a modification of carbon with a hexagonal crystal structure, so that a different presence density is produced at electrical connections.

An infrared detection element includes a pyroelectric body, first and second light receiving electrodes, and blackened films. The first light receiving electrode is provided on a surface of the pyroelectric body and receives infrared light from a first region. The second light receiving electrode is provided on a surface of the pyroelectric body and receives infrared light from a second region. The blackened films are provided on a surface of the first light receiving electrode and are not provided on a surface of the light second receiving electrode. Thus, infrared reception sensitivity is different between the first light receiving electrode and the second light receiving electrode.

An apparatus for generating electrical energy comprises an oscillating heat pipe for transferring heat between a heat source and a heat sink, and a pyroelectric generator for generating electricity from thermal fluctuations generated by the oscillating heat pipe as the oscillating heat pipe transfers heat between the heat source and the heat sink.

A method for producing a bolometric detector comprising producing a stack, on an interconnect level of a read-out circuit, comprising a sacrificial layer positioned between a carrier layer and an etch stop layer, the sacrificial layer comprising a mineral material; producing a conducting via passing through the stack such that it is in contact with a conducting portion of said interconnect level; depositing a conducting layer onto the carrier layer and the via; etching the conducting layer and the carrier layer, forming a bolometer membrane electrically connected to the via by a remaining portion of the conducting layer that covers an upper part of the via; and elimination of the sacrificial layer by selective chemical etching, and such that the membrane is suspended by the via.

A thermal emitter including a substrate and a grating arranged atop the substrate, the grating includes a plurality of equidistant structures having a cross-section with a trapezoid shape. Material of the substrate and the grating converts incoming heat into radiation.

A wafer-level integrated thermal detector comprises a first wafer and a second wafer (W1, W2) bonded together. The first wafer (W1) includes a dielectric or semiconducting substrate (100), a dielectric sacrificial layer (102) deposited on the substrate, a support layer (104) deposited on the sacrificial layer or the substrate, a suspended active element (108) provided within an opening (106) in the support layer, a first vacuum-sealed cavity (110) and a second vacuum-sealed cavity (106) on opposite sides of the suspended active element. The first vacuum-sealed cavity (110) extends into the sacrificial layer (102) at the location of the suspended active element (108). The second vacuum-sealed cavity (106) comprises the opening of the support layer (104) closed by the bonded second wafer. The thermal detector further comprises front optics (120) for entrance of radiation from outside into one of the first and second vacuum-sealed cavities, aback reflector (112) arranged to reflect radiation back into the other one of the first and second vacuum-sealed cavities, and electrical connections (114) for connecting the suspended active element to a readout circuit (118).