In recent years, the traditional MCT (Mercury Cadmium Telluride) technology for near-infrared (NIR) sensing has been developed further to manufacture APD (Avalanche Photo-Diode) arrays, which enables sub-electron readout noise measurements. This technology is now routinely used for wave-front sensing on ground-based telescopes using small format devices. Further effort to increase the size of NIR APD sensors as well as improving the MCT material properties (e.g. lower dark current) is needed such that they can be used for future ground and space-based scientific instrumentation.

MICOR system was successfully assembled at Menhir Photonics and final tests performed at CSEM. The tests demonstrated the impressive noise performance of the device. The following main results have been achieved:

The activity followed the development of an innovative hyperspectral imaging system for remote sensing applications in the thermal infrared. The camera is compact, lightweight and robust. The activity covered the development of the three modules of the imager, namely the spectrometer, the telescope and the detector. The consortium designed and manufactured an innovative spectrometer based on Fourier transform spectroscopy, consisting on calomel birefringent crystals, with working range in the thermal infrared.

Distributed optical fibre sensors (DOFS) are highly suitable for monitoring temperature, vibration and strain using physical principles such as Raman, Rayleigh and Brillouin backscatter. They convert a standard telecom infrastructure to a sensor network providing thousands of virtual sensors per km using the intrinsic light/glass interaction during propagation.

Diffraction limits the resolution of standard optical microscopes. Breaking the diffraction limit is the motivation behind Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) that includes Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy (SNOM). SPMs create high-resolution maps of the sample’s surface by scanning the sample with nanometric probes. SNOM in particular, can simultaneously provide information on the morphology and on the optical properties of materials by illuminating the sample with a localized field provided by the microscope probe.

Both dark energy missions propose the use of the Teledyne Imaging Systems Hawaii-2RG detector and SIDECAR ASIC. These activities would lead to a European supply of NIR/SWIR detector technology for both these and future science missions. This programme aims at developing a prototype large area hybrid array comprising silicon read-out integrated circuit and HgCdTe photovoltaic sensing layer.

A novel anti-reflection process was demonstrated which improves the quantum efficiency (QE) of a CMOS image sensor, with particular benefits at the ultraviolet (UV) and near infrared (NIR) ends of the electromagnetic spectrum. Also, the dark current and photoresponse non-uniformity (PRNU) were reduced to about 33% and 55%, respectively, of the values for a conventional control sensor. Spatial resolution seemed to be reduced in the NIR, as indicated by MTF measurements, but further investigations are required.

Plastic marine litter is a very complex global environmental issue, with plastic litter at the sea surface representing only a small fraction of plastic entering the sea. In this respect, the BLUE project investigated the potential of diverse LIDAR techniques (backscatter, fluorescence, Raman) to address the detection of plastic litter not only floating on the sea surface, but also suspended in the first few metres under the surface, with also a focus on detecting microplastics and discriminating plastic from other types of litter. The approach adopted was four-fold: