I-Corps: Commercialization of Chirped-Pulse Fourier Transform THz Spectrometers for Gas Analysis

高速数字电子学的进步使测量室温气体的高分辨率分子转动光谱成为可能。啁啾脉冲傅里叶变换(CP-FT)技术将测量速度提高了约四个数量级，超过了当前最先进的水平。这一进展使分子旋转光谱在多物种检测中的传统优势和高分子专一性应用于需要高样品吞吐量或实时化学监测的应用成为可能。宽广的瞬时频率覆盖范围和高光谱分辨率的光谱特征相结合，使分析复杂的气体混合物成为可能，而不需要事先进行化学分离(如气相色谱)。这一优势通过绕过对消耗性层析用品的需要而产生更低的总体光谱仪操作成本。分子旋转光谱学通过分子的量子力学频谱来识别分子。旋转光谱可以使用高精度的频率标准来测量，例如使用Rb钟表。这些功能提供了无与伦比的从实验室到实验室的测量传输能力。一旦光谱被识别，它就可以永远在任何其他仪器上被识别。下一代CP-FT光谱仪利用高速数字电子技术的进步实现了极高的数据吞吐量--光谱采集率现在可以达到2.4Gs/S。有可能开发一种用于化学监测的全新分析工具，其能力通过挖掘这些仪器产生的所有光谱数据而得到放大，从而使已知的分子特征目录迅速实时扩展。这种基于广泛部署和互联网连接的CP-FT气体传感器的数据驱动的科学驱动分析化学技术的概念，有可能彻底改变整个工业光谱应用中的实时化学监测。

Advances in high-speed digital electronics have enabled a new approach for measuring high-resolution molecular rotational spectra of room-temperature gases. The chirped-pulse Fourier transform (CP-FT) technique improves measurement speeds by about four orders-of-magnitude over the current state-of-the-art. This advance makes it possible to bring the traditional advantages of molecular rotational spectroscopy for multispecies detection and high molecular specificity to applications that require high sample throughput or real-time chemical monitoring. The combination of broad instantaneous frequency coverage and high spectral resolution of the spectroscopic features makes it possible to analyze complex gas mixtures without the need for prior chemical separation (like gas chromatography). This advantage produces lower overall spectrometer operating costs by bypassing the need for consumable chromatography supplies.Molecular rotational spectroscopy identifies molecules through their quantum mechanical frequency spectrum. The rotational spectrum can be measured with high frequency accuracy using precision frequency standards like rubidium clocks. These features provide unsurpassed transferability of measurements from lab-to-lab. Once the spectrum is identified, it can forever be recognized on any other instrument. The next-generation CP-FT spectrometers exploit advances in high-speed digital electronics to achieve exceptionally high data throughput - with spectrum acquisition rates of 2.4 Gs/s now possible. There is the potential to develop a qualitatively new analytical tool for chemical monitoring whose power is amplified by mining all of the spectral data produced by these instruments so that the known catalog of molecular signatures rapidly expands in real time. This concept of a data enabled science driven analytical chemistry technique based on widely deployed and internet-connected CP-FT gas sensors has the potential to revolutionize real-time chemical monitoring in applications across the industrial spectrum.