SBIR Phase I: Laser-enhanced Hypersensitive Bench-top NMR System

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to develop an optofluidic platform for applications in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that require enhanced detection sensitivity. In the US, NMR accounts for the largest share of the molecular spectroscopy market, with an estimated value of $700 million in 2013 and $1 billion in 2018. The compact, portable system that will result from this work will find applications in existing, emerging, or new markets connected to areas spanning point-of-care diagnostics, bio-defense, environmental monitoring, and food safety. This technology will also bring new opportunities to analytical science, particularly in studies that demand the high-throughput characterization of varied chemical moieties, as routinely carried out in the pharmaceutical industry. Further, this work will positively impact efforts to improve healthcare facilities through the development of advanced and low-cost diagnostic tools. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its ability to circumvent multiple limitations of existing nuclear spin polarization technologies through a robust, low-cost platform that leverages recent experimental findings. The technology to be developed introduces a new, laser-assisted route to enhancing the fractional alignment of nuclear spins in a target fluid, thus reducing the analyte's volume, the acquisition time, and the cost and size of the overall NMR system. The proposed approach articulates fluidics and photonic technologies to dynamically polarize fluids exposed to a properly engineered solid-state matrix. A central goal is to engineer the proposed device and conduct initial characterizations of its performance using model target fluids; the anticipated level of polarization is of the order 0.1% to 1% (i.e., orders of magnitude superior than that possible with commercially available magnets). These 'hyperpolarized' fluids can be used directly for inspection, or as a resource to post-polarize other (e.g., light-sensitive) fluidic systems.