FABRY/PEROT BASED RAMAN SENSOR

The ability to detect and "fingerprint" a single chemical specifies,a nd the ability to remotely measure physical properties of the environment is ne of the most powerful tools available to the physical scientist. However, such sensing techniques have been limited by the capabilities of available spectrometers. High signal to background ratios (contrast) and spectral resolution always comes at the expense of greater complexity and cost. Scientific Solutions INc. (SSI) proposes a novel solution to the problem of low signal-to-background spectroscopy and imaging. Utilizing the intristically high throughput of a fabry-perot etalon coupled with a variable spatial mask formed from a liquid crystal spatial light modulator will enable the detection and measurements of spectral lines that are only .1% of the background intensity. The throughput of the proposed sensor will be much greater than the throughput of currently available spectrometers, leading to a reduction in either the time needed to acquire a spectra or a reduction in the size of the spectrometer.