I-Corps: Novel Vortex Raman Spectrometers for Materials, Clean Energy and Biological Applications

拉曼光谱仪是固体、液体或气体中分子检测的主要工具之一。这个I-Corps团队已经证明，经过改进的拉曼光谱仪可以具有超高的光谱和空间分辨率。该团队提出的名为“涡旋拉曼光谱仪（VRM）”的技术提供了以前不可能实现的分子检测新方法。提议的技术有几类潜在用户：(i)学术研究人员（化学家、物理学家和材料科学家），他们将使用VRM研究新现象和新材料；（ii）将使用VRM进行新药设计和质量控制的制药公司；（iii）将使用涡旋拉曼成像来监测其产品表面的不均匀性并控制其产品中的杂质水平的半导体和光纤制造商；（iv）国土安全部和边境管制当局等政府机构将使用VRM实时探测爆炸物和非法毒品。VRM为这些潜在用户提供更高效的解决方案，或者有时为他们目前无法获得的问题提供新的解决方案。涡旋拉曼显微镜（VRM）采用涡旋光代替普通高斯光束。光涡旋是一个强度为零的点。它作为麦克斯韦方程组的非平凡解的存在是由迈克·贝里在1974年预测的。在拉盖尔-高斯（LG）光束中产生高轨道角动量（OAM）的光引起了极大的兴奋。提议的VRM将展示涡旋光谱的力量，其中禁止跃迁和沉默模式将被允许使用LG光束。该团队进行的理论分析表明了涡旋拉曼光谱的可行性，现有的一些拉曼光谱仪将被改造成具有超高光谱和空间分辨率的涡旋拉曼光谱仪。几种不同类型的空间光调制器将用于将普通高斯光束从激光转变为拉盖尔-高斯（LG）光束。为了进行涡旋拉曼测量，需要在VRM中保留LG光束的涡旋性质。

A Raman spectrometer is one of the main tools for molecular detection in materials: solid, liquid or gas. This I-Corps team has shown that a Raman spectrometer, when modified, can have ultra-high spectral and spatial resolutions. The proposed technology entitled "Vortex Raman Spectrometer (VRM)" developed by the team offers new ways of molecular detection, previously not possible. There are several categories of potential users for the proposed technology: (i) academic researchers (chemists, physicists, and material scientists) who will use VRM to study new phenomena and new materials; (ii) pharmaceutical companies who will use VRM to design new drugs and for quality control; (iii) semiconductor and optical fiber manufacturers who will use Vortex Raman imaging for monitoring inhomogeneity on the surfaces of their products and control the impurity levels in their products; and (iv) government agencies such as DHS and border control authority who will use VRM for real-time detection of explosives and illegal drugs. The VRM offers solutions to these potential users that are more efficient or sometimes new solutions to their problems that are currently not available. Vortex Raman microscope (VRM) uses Vortex light instead of ordinary Gaussian beam. An optical vortex is a point of zero intensity. Its existence as a non-trivial solution to Maxwell's equations was predicted by Mike Berry in 1974. The creation of high orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light in Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams has generated a great deal of excitement. The proposed VRM will demonstrate the power of vortex spectroscopy for which forbidden transitions and silent modes will become allowed with LG beams. The theoretical analysis performed by the team has shown the feasibility of Vortex Raman spectroscopy and a number existing of Raman spectrometers will be modified into Vortex Raman spectrometers which will have ultra-high spectral and spatial resolutions. Several different types of spatial light modulators will be used to turn ordinary Gaussian beam from a laser into Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams. The Vortex nature of the LG beams needs to be preserved in VRM to perform Vortex Raman measurements.