Abstract: A detector with quantum structure comprising a small-gap semiconductor material inserted between two large-gap semiconductor materials, the structure comprising a coupling grating between the wave to be detected and the detector zone constituted by the small-gap material. Under these conditions, the detector zone may have a very small thickness (typically of the order of 1,000 .ANG.) and lead to a detectivity, limited by the dark current, that is high.

Abstract: The disclosed jacket comprises a layer that is discreet with respect to the visible and infrared frequencies, having a specified thickness, with a specified dielectric permittivity and emissivity close to 1 for the infrared frequency bands considered; a resistive layer, with an electrical resistivity and thickness that are determined so that the inverse of their product gives a specified resistance; a layer of dielectric material with a specified thickness and a specified dielectric permittivity; and a conductive layer with electrical conductivity determined so that it is considered as a reflective plane for the radar frequencies considered.

Abstract: It is sought to obtain efficient detection and tracking capacity by a particular form of organization including a micro-scanning device common to all the detectors. In one embodiment, the disclosed device includes of a frame with a shape generated by revolution around an elevation axis. This frame bears afocal optical sets coupled respectively to optical focusing sets to project the light fluxes coming from the scenes observed and to form images on fixed detectors. Prisms, with a predetermined angle at the vertex and a predetermined orientation, are distributed in a circle on a rotational drum with an axis that is identical with the elevation axis so that, during the rotation of the drum, each prism intercepts the observation flux in the form of parallel beams and deflects it so as to prompt a virtual shift of the sensors of each detector corresponding to a micro-scanning step.