16. II–VI Semiconductor-Based Optical Temperature Sensors

Temperature sensors or thermometers are devices that are being utilised from households to space stations and from small-scale industries to mega industries of any kind. Temperature is a fundamental quantity in the physical world, the measurement of which is explicitly important. This chapter presents an overview on a very important aspect of these temperature sensors, that is, optical temperature sensors. On the other hand, II–VI semiconductor materials are very important owing to their splendid optical properties. Hence, a number of methods and a number of parameters can be employed to realise temperature sensing, viz. luminescence, fluorescence, fibre optics, surface plasmon resonance, etc. This chapter intends to attend to all these aspects one by one. The high-end applications of temperature sensors in biological imaging and diagnosis of HeLa cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and prostate cancer cells (PC-3) are underlined in this chapter. Finally, a concrete conclusion including current challenges, possible remedies and future prospects are discussed at the end.