Linjun Zhai

Infrared light is invisible to the eye, and conventional IR cameras rely on narrow-bandgap detector arrays plus cooling, making them costly and bulky. SIVIS sends IR and visible beams through one shared path, modulates both with a digital micromirror device, and uses the IR intensity read by a single-pixel single-photon detector as feedback so a genetic algorithm evolves the illumination pattern toward the target shape, while a matching visible pattern is projected onto the target or a screen. Static and moving targets are visualized in real time in both transmission and reflection, remaining discernible down to about 0.11 photons per pixel per detection (about 0.1 pW/cm²), with demonstrations in IR anti-counterfeiting and imaging through roughly 2 mm of biological tissue.

Infrared light is invisible to the eye, and conventional IR cameras rely on narrow-bandgap detector arrays plus cooling, making them costly and bulky. SIVIS sends IR and visible beams through one shared path, modulates both with a digital micromirror device, and uses the IR intensity read by a single-pixel single-photon detector as feedback so a genetic algorithm evolves the illumination pattern toward the target shape, while a matching visible pattern is projected onto the target or a screen. Static and moving targets are visualized in real time in both transmission and reflection, remaining discernible down to about 0.11 photons per pixel per detection (about 0.1 pW/cm²), with demonstrations in IR anti-counterfeiting and imaging through roughly 2 mm of biological tissue.