SBIR Phase II: A Spectroscopic THz Sensor for Mixed Gas Analysis and Air Pollution Monitoring

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是创造一种经济、轻便、高性能的太赫兹(THz)光谱仪，允许测试空气和化石燃料中是否存在有害化合物。频域太赫兹光谱仪能够表征气体样品中不同的分子和化学物质。过去，这些光谱仪由于其尺寸和复杂性而被降级到实验室，但最近的技术进步使制造足够小和足够轻的光谱太赫兹传感器成为可能，足以在消费无人机上飞行。尺寸和成本的减少为使用太赫兹传感器对进入美国水域的船只进行排放测试或在石油加工设施对化石燃料进行污染物测试打开了大门。这一点意义重大，因为在当地分析样品的能力消除了收集潜在危险化合物(即易燃化合物或污染物)并将其运往实验室进行分析的时间和费用。它还允许在短时间内进行检测和分类，而不需要让人员受到当地环境的影响。拟议中的项目将生产出第一种紧凑型、电池供电、自主工作的光谱太赫兹传感器，能够对混合气体进行分析，灵敏度达到百万分之几。它将主要由经济型下架光纤组件构成，采用一种新型的高度紧凑、重量轻的外形。为了实现高灵敏度，光谱太赫兹传感器将采用：来自电信行业的高保真激光器、定制设计和制造的高效率、密封的光混合器、折叠的轻质碳纤维样品池、采用专利的3D打印镜技术和专利的光学相位调制技术，从而消除相干检测的影响。该仪器将首先用于基于实验室的气流中含硫污染物的测量。在成功展示该仪器的能力后，第一件物品将用于初步测试和协作实地工作。基于相同技术的大型实验室仪器的销售将同时开始。这一奖励反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to create an economical, light‐weight, high performance Terahertz (THz) spectrometer to allow testing of air and fossil fuels for the presence of harmful compounds. A frequency domain THz spectrometer is capable of characterizing the different molecules and chemicals in a gas sample. Historically these spectrometers have been relegated to the laboratory because of their size and complexity but recent technical advancements have made it possible to build a spectroscopic THz sensor small enough and light enough to be flown on a consumer drone. The reductions in size and cost have opened the door to using THz sensors for emissions testing of ships entering U.S. waters or contaminant testing of fossil fuels at petroleum processing facilities. This is significant because the ability to analyze samples locally removes the time and expense of collecting and shipping potentially dangerous compounds (i.e. flammable compounds or pollutants) to a laboratory for analysis. It also allows detection and classification to occur on short notice and without the need to subject personnel to the local environment. The proposed project will produce the first article of a compact, battery operated, autonomously operating spectroscopic THz sensor capable of mixed gas analysis to parts per million sensitivities. It will be constructed predominantly from economical off‐the‐shelf fiber optic components in a novel highly compact, light‐weight form factor. In order to achieve the high sensitivities, the spectroscopic THz sensor will incorporate: high fidelity lasers from the telecommunications industry, custom designed and fabricated high efficiency, hermetically sealed photomixers, a folded, light‐weight, carbon fiber sample cell incorporating patented 3D printed mirror technology and a patented optical phase‐modulation technique that removes the effects of coherent detection. The instrument will first be employed for laboratory based measurements of sulfur-containing contaminants in gas flows. Upon the successful demonstration of the capabilities of the instrument, a first article will be used in initial testing and collaborative field work. Sales of a larger laboratory instrument based on the same technology will begin simultaneously.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.