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Glowing crystals help to measure temperatures from afar

New crystalline materials aid in the detection of tiny temperature shifts in a target object.
A thermographic image of a patterned ITO glass slide with a bolometric camera

Heated glass that has been etched with letters is imaged using a standard method for measuring temperature from a distance. A new, more sensitive version of the method can detect minute temperature changes. Credit: Sergii Yakunin/Bogdan Benin

Crystals that detect temperature changes of just a fraction of a degree could form part of a ‘remote thermometer’ that gauges an object’s warmth from a distance.

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Nature 571, 149 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02082-w

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