Wearable Fiber Optic-Enabled Chemical Nanosensor Array for Warfighters

Harmful exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that occur in operational environments and workplaces represents a health- and performance-risk to dismounted Warfighters and other personnel. There is an unmet need for a highly-integrated, minimalist sensing capability that not only meets sensing requirements, but that can be used where the architectural constraints imposed by specific use-scenarios would render other approaches sub-optimal or impractical. Porous-silicon photonic-crystal materials offer the possibility of mounting millimeter-size sensors directly on the distal end of an optical fiber, resulting in a lightweight, low-cost, flexible, micro-scale, probe-like, optical-sensor solution that could be integrated into the fabric of items of kit or used in applications where minimally-invasive architectures are necessary. This proposal aims to pursue the integration of porous-silicon sensor material with optical fiber to result in a highly-capable, lower-power package, to perform testing to characterize the selectivity, sensitivity, regeneration and reliability performance-characteristics that can be achieved, and to lay the foundation for future work to improve performance and provide an unobtrusive, soldier-worn solution. Under the Option phase of the work, the sensor will undergo characterization testing under conditions of varying humidity.