Topic summary
Infrared sensors
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Thermography.
Cooled infrared detectors
Cooled bolometer technologies can be superconducting or non-superconducting. Superconducting detectors offer extreme sensitivity, with some able to register individual photons. For example, ESA's Superconducting camera (SCAM). However, they are not in regular use outside of scientific research. In principle, superconducting tunneling junction devices could be used as infrared sensors because of their very narrow gap. Small arrays have been demonstrated, but they have not been broadly adopted for use because their high sensitivity requires careful shielding from background radiation.