Uncooled near- and mid-IR spectrometer engine.

Agiltron proposes to develop an extremely compact and high sensitivity uncooled near- and mid-infrared (NMIR) spectrometer engine for planetary compositional analysis and mapping. In this program, we will produce lead salt-based IR detector materials with single crystalline-like oriented thin film structures which will increase the majority charge carrier mobility by two orders of magnitude. Exceptionally high charge carrier mobility will significantly improve photosensitivity and greatly reduce noise of the IR detectors and detector arrays. We will produce this unique thin film structure by employing so called "nano-graphoepitaxy", in which lead salt thin films are deposited on nanoengineered substrates, then followed by sensitizing them in controlled process conditions. Micro-grooved substrates will further enhance photon absorption efficiency via the ray optics. Furthermore, we will design and develop an extremely compact and high spectral resolution spectrometer engine by employing an aperiodic nanostructure-based spectrometer platform.In Phase I, we will design, fabricate and test nanoengineered NMIR detector materials and arrays. We will also conceptually design the aperiodic nanostructure-based spectrometer for NMIR applications. In Phase II, we will produce and evaluate the performance of a prototype uncooled near- and mid-IR spectrometer engine by integrating the high sensitivity detector arrays into the aperiodic nanostructured spectrometer platform.