Team members at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are improving their innovative laser-equipped technology. The new free-form dual-comb spectroscopy, a novel method for measuring gases, may help in several ways such as detecting poisonous gases on the battlefield and preventing gas leaks from becoming more severe, but researchers acknowledge that the technology is not perfect.
The first improvement team members are looking to make is related to the system’s size. Scientists built the tool indoors as a lab system; therefore, it is massive and extremely hard to break down and move anywhere. Because of this, it is difficult for team members to move it outside and use it to its full potential, according to Esther Baumann, research scientist at NIST. Baumann wants to work on making the technology smaller to work in more than just the lab setting.
“Shrinking it is always something we must drive, so we can get it outside and do field measurements,” Baumann said. “More detailed field measurements where we say, ‘OK, we want to really home in on this specific ask; we want to do that measurement or whatsoever.’”
Next, crew members are working toward adding more applications that will allow the free-form dual-comb spectroscopy to perform even more measurements. The additional applications could help the tool conduct more “sciency” measurements, according to Baumann.
Additionally, team officials want to see how the laser works at longer wavelengths. The tool performed really well in its testing spot near-infrared wavelengths. In the next steps, NIST personnel will move the tool further away and into the “mid-infrared” area, according to Dr. Ian Coddington, group leader for NIST’s Fiber Sources and Applications Group. Accomplishing this will expose the tool to a higher sensitivity to different trace species in the atmosphere.
Another benefit of adding this feature is that the tool would have the ability to recognize large molecules in addition to the small, finer molecules that it can detect now. For example, methane is easily detectable with the free-form dual-comb spectroscopy, but the tool is unable to identify chemicals associated with weapons of mass destruction, according to Coddington. To address this, team members want to make the technology more versatile and useful in military operations.
“You would actually want to see the chemical at a concentration that’s going to give you a chance to warn people that it’s coming before it’s lethal; you want a very high sensitivity,” Coddington said. “Then you want to take advantage of this technique that [team members] came up with where you’re only sampling; you’re only looking where there’s a lot of information content.”
“You get a lot of sensitivity enhancements from there, but you get an additional sensitivity enhancement if you were to go through these longer wavelengths, and applying both those hammers simultaneously maybe puts you in a much more interesting spot,” Coddington added.
Lastly, Baumann and her colleagues are trying to apply this laser-based technology to the medical field. She says she wants to use the lasers to make it easier for doctors to conduct muscle testing. Currently, doctors must cut the skin and take a sample of a muscle to analyze it, but Baumann envisions that doctors could use this new laser technique to examine muscles and use coloration to see which parts are healthy and which are unhealthy. Similar to an X-ray, these lasers could give you an in-depth look at what is going on within someone’s body without making any incisions, according to Baumann.
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