Infrared Technology

(also IR technology), the branch of applied physics and technology that includes the development and application in scientific research, production, and the military of instruments whose operation is based on the use of infrared radiation and its physical properties.

Infrared technology includes instruments for the detection and measurement of infrared radiation, for observation and photography in the dark, for remote measurement of the temperature of heated bodies on the basis of their thermal radiation, and for concealed signaling and terrestrial and space communications; infrared sights and range finders; instruments for detecting land, naval, and air targets on the basis of their thermal infrared radiation (thermal direction finders and night vision instruments); and homing devices for projectiles and missiles. In a broader sense the development and design of infrared radiation receivers and sources (including the development of optical quantum generators in the infrared band), the development of light filters for isolating infrared radiation and of materials that are transparent in the infrared region of the spectrum, and the development of instruments for obtaining infrared absorption and emission spectra may also be classified as branches of infrared technology.