Broadband Optical Constants Measurement Device

Optical characterization of materials has remained an active area of research for many decades. With advancements in light sources, detectors, microscopy, or compact spectroscopic analysis, a renewed effort is made to apply these technologies to biological tissue characterization. There is a current need to characterize the details of the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with different materials, including biological tissue. The needs span across military, industrial, and academic sectors. Nanohmics, Inc., in partnership with the Department of Medical Physiology at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (TAMHSC), will design and fabricate an optical material characterization tool. The Broadband Optical Characterization System (BOCS) combines an agile, adjustable light source and a novel optical system that can rapidly measure the broadband spectroscopic and polarimetric BRDF and BTDF of a material sample. The BOCS device features the ability to make real-time in-situ measurements of fixed or living biological tissue. The BOCS prototype delivered to AFRL will be enhanced with improvements based upon the Phase I results, as well as additional LWIR measurement capabilities via use of a microbolometer system – enabling the estimation of material thermal properties. The BOCS prototype will measure the dynamic thermodynamic and optical characteristics of selected ex vivo tissue