Seeing Photons

The Department of Defense recently highlighted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities as a top priority for U.S. warfighters. Contributions provided by ISR assets in the operational theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan have been widely documented in press reporting. While the United States continues to increase investments in ISR capabilities, other nations not friendly to the United States will continue to seek countermeasures to U.S. capabilities. The Technology Warning Division of the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Defense Warning Office (DWO) has the critical responsibility, in collaborations with other components of the intelligence community (IC), for providing U.S. policymakers insight into technological developments that may impact future U.S. warfighting capabilities. To this end, the IC requested that the National Research Council (NRC) investigate and report on key visible and infrared detector technologies, with potential military utility, that are likely to be developed in the next 10-15 years. This study is the eighth in a series sponsored by the DWO and executed under the auspices of the NRC TIGER (Technology Insight-Gauge, Evaluate, and Review) Standing Committee. Table of Contents Front Matter Summary 1 National Security Context of Detector Technologies 2 Fundamentals of Ultraviolet, Visible, and Infrared Detectors 3 Key Current Technologies and Evolutionary Developments 4 Emerging Technologies with Potentially Significant Impacts 5 The Global Landscape of Detector Technologies Appendixes Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members Appendix B: Meetings and Participating Organizations Appendix C: Background Information on Radiation Hardening for Detectors