Is there life after thermal emitters?

摘要

In this report, we examine whether photonic IR emitters are able to compete with advanced thermal microemitter technology in testing and stimulating IR sensors, including forward-looking IR missile warning systems, IR search-and-track devices, and missile seekers. We consider fundamentals, technology, and parameters of photonic devices as well as their pros and cons in respect to thermal emitters. In particular, we show that photonic devices can from platform for next generation of multi-spectral and hyper-spectral dynamic scene simulation devices operating inside MWIR and LWIR bands with high spectral output density and able to simulate dynamically cold scenes (without cryogenic cooling) and low observable with very high frame rate.