To Make a Better Sensor, Just Add Noise
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
To make a better sensor, just add noise:
Adding noise to enhance a weak signal is a sensing phenomenon common in the animal world but unusual in manmade sensors. Now Penn State researchers have added a small amount of background noise to enhance very weak signals in a light source too dim to sense.
In contrast to most sensors, for which noise is a problem that should be suppressed, they found that adding just the right amount of background noise can actually increase a signal too weak for sensing by normal sensors, to a level that can reach detectability.
Although their sensor, based on a two-dimensional material called molybdenum disulfide, detects light, the same principle can be used to detect other signals, and because it requires very little energy and space compared to conventional sensors, could find wide adaptation in the coming Internet of Things (IoT). IoT will deploy tens of millions of sensors to monitor conditions in the home and factories, and low energy requirements would be a strong bonus.
[...] "Stochastic resonance is a phenomenon where a weak signal which is below the detection threshold of a sensor can be detected in the presence of a finite and appropriate amount of noise," according to Akhil Dodda, a graduate student in engineering science and mechanics and co-first author on a new paper appearing this week in Nature Communications.
In their paper, the researchers demonstrate the first use of this technique to detect a subthreshold photonic signal.
Journal Reference:
Akhil Dodda, Aaryan Oberoi, Amritanand Sebastian, et al. Stochastic resonance in MoS2 photodetector [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18195-0)
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