Flexible Broad-band Optical Device

Optical characterization of materials has remained an active area of research for many decades. With each advancement in light sources, detector technologies, microscopy, or compact spectroscopic analysis, a renewed effort is made to apply these technologies to material characterization, especially for biological tissues. There is a current need to characterize the details of the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with different materials, including biological tissue. The needs span across military, industrial, and academic sectors. Nanohmics, Inc., in partnership with the Department of Medical Physiology at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (TAMHSC), propose to design and show proof-of-principle for an optical material characterization tool. The Broadband Optical Characterization System (BOCS) combines an agile, adjustable light source and a novel optical system that can rapidly measure the broadband spectroscopic and polarimetric BRDF and BTDF of a material sample. The BOCS device features the ability to make real-time in-situ measurements of fixed or living biological tissue.