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

高速数字电子学的发展为测量室温气体的高分辨率分子转动光谱提供了一种新的方法。啁啾脉冲傅里叶变换（CP-FT）技术提高了约四个数量级的测量速度比目前最先进的。这一进步使得它有可能把传统的优势分子旋转光谱多物种检测和高分子特异性的应用，需要高的样品通量或实时化学监测。广泛的瞬时频率覆盖范围和光谱特性的高光谱分辨率相结合，使得分析复杂的气体混合物成为可能，而无需事先进行化学分离（如气相色谱）。这一优势可降低光谱仪的整体运行成本，无需消耗色谱耗材。分子旋转光谱通过分子的量子力学频谱识别分子。旋转光谱可以使用精密频率标准（如铷钟）以高频率精度测量。这些特性提供了实验室之间无与伦比的测量可移植性。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来实现极高的数据吞吐量-现在可以实现2.4 Gs/s的光谱采集速率。有潜力开发一种用于化学监测的新的定性分析工具，通过挖掘这些仪器产生的所有光谱数据来放大其能力，以便在真实的时间内迅速扩大已知的分子特征目录。这种基于广泛部署和互联网连接的CP-FT气体传感器的数据支持科学驱动的分析化学技术的概念有可能彻底改变整个工业范围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.