A RUGGED ON-LINE MULTIPLE INPUT FIBER OPTIC-BASED RAMAN SENSOR FOR INDUSTRIAL PROCESS MONITORING AND CONTROL

RESEARCH IN THIS PROJECT IS BEING CONDUCTED TO DEVELOP A COMPACT, RUGGED, ON-LINE, MULTIPLE INPUT, FIBER OPTIC-BASED RAMAN PROCESS MONITORING AND CONTROL SENSOR CAPABLE OF OPERATING IN HARSH INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS. CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE ARRAY DETECTOR-BASED RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, EMPLOYING LASER DIODES AND OPTICAL FIBER PROBES, CAPABLE OF SENSITIVITIES COMPARABLE TO OR BETTER THAN THE FOURIER TRANSFORM RAMAN METHOD, HAS ALREADY BEEN DEMONSTRATED. THIS NEW MULTIPLE INPUT ON-LINE SENSOR CAN PROBABLY BE IMPLEMENTED IN A SEALED, COMPACT, AND RUGGED INSTRUMENT HAVING NO MOVING PARTS. THE INSTRUMENT BEING STUDIED IN PHASE I IS BASED ON AN EXISTING 100 MM F/2 IMAGING SPECTROGRAPH DESIGN THAT, BECAUSE OF ITS HIGH THROUGHPUT AND IMAGING CAPABILITY, IS CAPABLE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY MONITORING AND CONTROLLING A NUMBER OF INPUT SPECTRAL CHANNELS. THE INSTRUMENT HAS A HIGH SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO, WHICH PROMISES TO MAKE THE METHOD A TRUE TRACE DETECTION TECHNIQUE. THEORETICAL ARGUMENTS SUPPORTED BY EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS SHOW THAT IT IS REASONABLE TO ANTICIPATE A COMPACT, RUGGED (EVEN PORTABLE), MULTIPLE INPUT RAMAN SYSTEM CAPABLE OF CONVENIENT AND RAPID MULTIPOINT DETECTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF ANALYTES IN PROCESS ENVIRONMENTS.