Infrared detection and imaging, method and apparatus

A method for detecting infrared radiation comprising the steps of focusing the infrared radiation on an infrared absorbing film having applied thereon a thin layer of a luminescent material, the luminesence of said material being produced upon irradiation with ultraviolet or short wavelength visible radiation, said luminescence including two distinct visible or short wavelength IR spectral components identified as A and B, the ratio of the intensities of said component being determined by the temperature of the luminescent material, the intensity of component A decreasing with an increase in temperature and the intensity of component B increasing in a correlated manner;

• measuring the change of the luminescence from said components A and B produced by the heating effect of the infrared radiation;
• and combining said luminescence signal from said spectral components A and B.

An infrared image converter comprising an infrared absorbing film having applied thereon a thin layer of a luminescent material, the luminescence of said material being produced upon irradiation with ultraviolet or visible radiation, said luminescence having two distinct visible or short wavelength IR spectral components identified as A and B, the ratio of the intensities of said components being determined by the temperature of the luminescent material, the intensity of component A decreasing with an increase in temperature and the intensity of component B increasing with an increase in temperature, means for generating the luminescence of said material, measuring means operatively connected to said generating means for measuring the ratio of the intensities of said components A and B for each resolvable element of the infrared image focused on said film, and processing and displaying means for presenting a visible image corresponding to said ratio distribution.

A method for converting an infrared image to a visible image comprising the steps of focusing an infrared image on an infrared absorbing film having applied thereon a thin layer of a luminescent material, the luminescence of said material being produced upon irradiation with ultraviolet or visible radiation, said luminescence having two distinct visible or short wavelength IR spectral components identified as A and B, the ratio of the intensities being determined by the temperature of the luminescent material, the intensity of said component A decreasing with an increase in temperature and the intensity of said component B increasing with an increase in temperature;

• measuring the ratio of the intensities of said A and B components for each resolvable element of the infrared image focused on said film;
• and processing and displaying a visible image derived from the ratio distribution of the luminescent intensities.

A device for converting an infrared image to a visible image comprising an infrared absorbing film having applied thereon a thin layer of a luminescent material, the luminescence of said material being produced upon irradiation with ultraviolet or visible radiation, said luminescence having two distinct visible or short wavelength IR spectral components identified as A and B, the ratio of the intensities of said components being determined by the temperature of the luminescent material, the intensity of component A decreasing with an increase in temperature and the intensity of component B increasing with an increase in temperature, means for generating the luminescence of said material, measuring means operatively connected to said generating means for measuring the ratio of the intensities of said components A and B for each resolvable element of the infrared focused on said film, and processing and displaying means for presenting a visible image derived from said ratio distribution.