A NEAR-INFRARED FIBEROPTICALLY COUPLED RAMAN SPECTROMETER

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO DEVELOP A LOW-COST, FIBEROPTICALLY COUPLED RAMAN SPECTROMETER FOR BIOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL, BIOPHYSICAL, AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS. RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY PROVIDES MOLECULAR FINGERPRINTING CAPABILITIES AS DOES INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY, BUT UNLIKE INFRARED, RAMAN ISAPPLICABLE TO AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENTS. THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENTWILL PROVIDE THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY WITH A FLEXIBLE AND EASIER METHOD OF OBTAINING RAMAN SPECTRA FOR BOTH DEDICATED AND GENERAL LABORATORY APPLICATIONS THAN CURRENT COMMERCIAL RAMAN SPECTROMETERS (BOTH VISIBLE AND FT-RAMAN). THE PHASE I OBJECTIVE IS TO DEMONSTRATE A PROTOTYPE FIBEROPTICALLY COUPLED INSTRUMENT IN A BREADBOARD CONFIGURATION. COST SAVINGS AS WELL AS SIZE REDUCTION OF THE INSTRUMENT WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH A NEW SPECTROMETER DESIGN BASED ON THE HADAMARD TRANSFORM MULTIPLEXING TECHNIQUE AND NEAR-INFRARED EXCITATION (NIR). NIR EXCITATION ALSO RESULTS IN A LOW BACKGROUND FLUORESCENCE ANDREDUCED SAMPLE PHOTODECOMPOSITION. THE EASE AND FLEXIBILITYWILL BE ACHIEVED WITH A FIBEROPTIC DELIVERY AND COLLECTION PROBE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR NIR RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY. PHASE II WOULD HAVE THE GOAL OF DEVELOPING AND TESTING A TURNKEY INSTRUMENT UTILIZING COMPACT SOLID-STATE LASER SOURCES AND A FIBEROPTIC EXCITATION/COLLECTION SYSTEM.