Metalens fluorometer to assess drinking water in Nepal

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The country of Nepal has major issues with the quality of its drinking water. Tools to assess drinking water quality are too expensive and not available. We will address this problem by developing a handheld fluorometer to detect tryptophan-like fluorescence as a proxy for bacterial contamination in drinking water. Our novel design is intrinsically simple and can be made at low cost. The core of the instrument is a high numerical aperture metalens that maximises collection efficiency and that can be made by nanoimprint lithography. The metalens will be designed to be strongly chromatic such that the images for different wavelengths are laterally displaced, such that emitter and detector can be placed next to one another. We will develop a translation pathway for prototype instruments to be made in Nepal for use in local communities.