Heat sensors form an important class of devices that are used across multiple fields and sectors. For applications such as electronic skin and health monitoring, it is particularly advantageous if the output electronic signals are not only high, stable, and reproducible, but also self-generated to minimize power consumption. Here, we present an ultrasensitive heat sensing concept that fulfills these criteria while also being compatible with scalable low-cost manufacturing on flexible substrates. The concept resembles a traditional thermocouple, but with separated electrodes bridged by a gel-like electrolyte and with orders of magnitudes higher signals (around 11 mV K⁻¹). The sensor pixels provide stable and reproducible signals upon heating, which, for example, could be used for heat mapping. Further modification to plasmonic nanohole metasurface electrodes made the sensors capable of also detecting light-induced heating. Finally, we present devices on flexible substrates and show that they can be used to detect human touch.

热传感器构成一类重要的设备，可在多个领域和领域中使用。对于诸如皮肤电子和健康监测之类的应用，如果输出的电子信号不仅高，稳定和可再现，而且自生以最大程度地降低功耗，则将特别有利。在这里，我们提出了一种超灵敏的热感应概念，该概念既满足这些标准，又与可伸缩的低成本柔性基板制造兼容。该概念类似于传统的热电偶，但电极之间由凝胶状电解质桥接，信号强度提高了几个数量级（约11 mV K ^-1）。传感器像素在加热时提供稳定且可重现的信号，例如可用于热图绘制。对等离激元纳米孔超表面电极的进一步修改使传感器也能够检测光诱导的加热。最后，我们在柔性基板上展示了设备，并表明它们可用于检测人的触摸。