An Infrared Fiber-Optic Raman Sensor for Field Detecting of Organic Biomarkers

High throughput, fast detection and characterization of inorganic and organic biomarkers have become important challenge for future lunar robotic rover exploration and planetary missions. To allow for rapid sample characterization on the Moon and Mars, the in situ non-destructive Raman detection technique is a highly desirable sensing tool for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. However, current Raman systems deployed in the field are inadequate due to deleterious fluorescence interference. Fluorescence is often several orders of magnitude more intense than Raman scattering signals and its broad structures spectrum could be difficult to remove from Raman spectra. We propose to develop a new infrared fiber-optic Raman sensor that can eliminate fluorescence with significantly improved Raman sensitivity for fast field detections. The proposed concept is based on recent technology advances in fiber lasers, fiber optic Raman probes and infrared detector arrays. Innovative infrared fiber-optic Raman sensor enables highly sensitive fluorescence-free Raman analysis and offers flexible remote detection, so that the field spectrometer's overall performance would be intact and extremely flexible for planetary missions. No dispersive Raman system today offers the unique fluorescence elimination for rapid in-situ fiber-optic remote detection.