arXiv subjects

Mohamed A. Mousa

Publications and source records attributed to Mohamed A. Mousa.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Enhanced Sensitivity to Blackbody Radiation in Spintronic Poisson Bolometers

High-sensitivity long-wave infrared (LWIR) detection is crucial for observing weak thermal radiation. Recently, the Poisson bolometer has been proposed as a fundamentally new platform for uncooled infrared detection. In contrast to traditional analog detectors, where signal and noise are determined by continuous currents or voltages, the Poisson bolometer's signal and noise are governed by Poissonian counting statistics regardless of the light source. In this work, we demonstrate advancements in uncooled infrared detection towards cryogenic-level sensitivity through the integration of spintronic and plasmonic materials. Specifically, a spintronic Poisson bolometer is experimentally integrated with a plasmonic nanoantenna array optimized for broadband LWIR absorption to enhance the temperature increase of the sensing layer. The plasmonic absorber exhibits an absorptance exceeding 60\% across the LWIR spectrum, matching the peak of room-temperature blackbody radiation. We demonstrate that these devices are capable of achieving a noise equivalent differential temperature (NEDT) of 35 mK at a 50 Hz frame rate, demonstrating room-temperature performance comparable to the most sensitive uncooled LWIR detectors reported to date. This work opens up a pathway to removing bulky and expensive cooling requirements from high-sensitivity LWIR detection and imaging applications, such as remote sensing, high-speed imaging, and industrial monitoring.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Optical Response in Spintronic Poisson Bolometers

Analog bolometers based on temperature-dependent phase-transition materials such as vanadium oxide (VOx) and barium titanate (BTO) represent the state of the art in uncooled infrared detectors. Recently, the first room-temperature spintronic Poisson bolometer based on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) was proposed and demonstrated as a promising infrared detector. Unlike conventional bolometers, the spintronic Poisson bolometer operates in a probabilistic regime dominated by Poissonian noise, where the response is governed by resistance fluctuations arising from thermally activated magnetization transitions. Spontaneous transitions between two metastable magnetic states occur even in the absence of incident light, and the transition probability increases under illumination. In this work, we experimentally study the statistical properties of the optical response of the spintronic Poisson bolometer under illumination. We demonstrate that transitions in spintronic Poisson bolometers, both in the absence and presence of light, exhibit Poissonian behavior, with transition rates and interarrival times modulated by incident radiation. Under illumination, we observe a 153% increase in the count rate accompanied by a 70% reduction in interarrival time. These results establish spintronic Poisson bolometers as a promising platform for probabilistic, high-speed, and high-sensitivity infrared detection at room temperature.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Physics-Integrated Inference for Signal Recovery in Non-Gaussian Regimes

High-performance room-temperature sensing is often limited by non-stationary $1/f$ fluctuations and non-Gaussian stochasticity. In spintronic devices, thermally activated Néel switching creates heavy-tailed noise that masks weak signals, defeating linear filters optimized for Gaussian statistics. Here, we introduce a physics-integrated inference framework that decouples signal morphology from stochastic transients using a hierarchical 1D CNN-GRU topology. By learning the temporal signatures of Néel relaxation, this architecture reduces the Noise Equivalent Differential Temperature (NEDT) of spintronic Poisson bolometers by a factor of six (233.78 mK to 40.44 mK), effectively elevating room-temperature sensitivity toward cryogenic limits. We demonstrate the framework's universality across the electromagnetic and biological spectrum, achieving a 9-fold error suppression in Radar tracking, a 40\% uncertainty reduction in LiDAR, and a 15.56 dB SNR enhancement in ECG. This hardware-inference coupling recovers deterministic signals from fluctuation-dominated regimes, enabling near-ideal detection limits in noisy edge environments.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Uncooled Poisson Bolometer for High-Speed Event-Based Long-wave Thermal Imaging

Event-based vision provides high-speed, energy-efficient sensing for applications such as autonomous navigation and motion tracking. However, implementing this technology in the long-wave infrared remains a significant challenge. Traditional infrared sensors are hindered by slow thermal response times or the heavy power requirements of cryogenic cooling. Here, we introduce the first event-based infrared detector operating in a Poisson-counting regime. This is realized with a spintronic Poisson bolometer capable of broadband detection from 0.8-14$μ\text{m}$. In this regime, infrared signals are detected through statistically resolvable changes in stochastic switching events. This approach enables room-temperature operation with high timing resolution. Our device achieves a maximum event rate of 1,250 Hz, surpassing the temporal resolution of conventional uncooled microbolometers by a factor of 4. Power consumption is kept low at 0.2$μ$W per pixel. This work establishes an operating principle for infrared sensing and demonstrates a pathway toward high-speed, energy-efficient, event-driven thermal imaging.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Ultra-broadband Mid to Long-wave Infrared Spintronic Poisson Bolometer

Infrared detectors have traditionally been divided into two fundamental classes, mid-wave (MWIR, 3-5 um) and long-wave (LWIR, 8-14 um). Integrating MWIR and LWIR within a single device is challenging due to distinct materials, cooling needs, and detection mechanisms, while such integration is critical for improved object recognition, temperature estimation, and environmental sensing. In this work, we demonstrate a Spintronic Poisson (SP) bolometer enabling room-temperature ultra-broadband sensing across 3-14 um. Unlike conventional bolometers that rely on continuous analog signals, the SP bolometer implements a Poisson-counting detection paradigm, encoding temperature in discrete stochastic events, which turns thermal noise from a limitation into the basis of the estimator itself. We fabricate the SP bolometer using a spintronic transduction layer integrated with a plasmonic nanoantenna array to enhance broadband infrared absorption. Using spintronic transduction, the device achieves the noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD, thermal sensitivity metric) of 80-100 mK at 300 K, surpassing uncooled detectors and approaching cooled technologies. This work establishes a statistical detection paradigm for room-temperature infrared sensing with broad application potential.

physics.optics↗