Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology, led by Xin Tang and Ge Mu, have developed a novel night vision goggle that translates infrared light into full-color visible images, a significant advancement over traditional green-hued night vision.

Unlike existing devices that render infrared as monochrome brightness, this new technology converts different infrared wavelengths into distinct colors within the visible spectrum. This is achieved by combining mercury telluride colloidal quantum dots, which absorb infrared light, with a dual-layer OLED display. The quantum dots, approximately 4 nanometers across, exhibit quantum confinement, allowing them to generate charge carriers in response to specific infrared wavelengths and intensities. Shorter wavelengths and higher intensities excite more electronic transitions, producing more charge carriers.

The dual-layer OLED then translates these varying charge carrier levels into color. An energy barrier between a red-emitting layer and a cyan-emitting layer dictates the color output. Low charge carrier numbers result in red, while increasing numbers saturate the barrier, allowing charge carriers to reach the cyan layer and produce a mixed red-cyan hue, effectively encoding both wavelength and intensity. This system offers a 200-fold improvement in distinguishing infrared power differences compared to monochrome designs. The team has demonstrated a lightweight, semi-transparent eyeglass prototype and explored its potential for biological visual systems, including mice and human volunteers, suggesting future applications in advanced visual prosthetics.