SBIR Phase I: Slitless, compact, low-cost, and multichannel volume holographic spectrometers

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一个新的光谱仪平台，使用圆柱形光束体积全息图（CBVH）作为色散元件。由于其独特的特性，CBVH使二维（2D）空间光谱输出图案的设计能力，以显着增强全息光谱仪的功能。作为示例，提出了通过将CBVH分成若干行来部署多通道光谱仪，并且每一行被专门设计和记录以在整个光谱带宽内的波长范围（或通道）中执行波长色散。因此，可以在不牺牲光谱分辨率的情况下实现光谱带宽的显著改善，同时保持紧凑、重量轻、低成本、可靠和对准稳健的光谱仪的所有优点。利用所提出的多通道光谱仪设计，即使感兴趣的几个物种的光谱分布在一个非常大的光谱带宽中，也可以一次检测到它们。由于体全息的设计灵活性，该技术可以在不增加系统复杂性（例如更多元件和复杂的系统布置）的情况下设计具有定制功能的光谱仪。如果成功，提供空间和光谱检测的光谱传感器系统将为生命科学和医疗市场提供巨大的实用性。对于高通量筛选，需要在包含多个样品位点的测试上同时读取多个通道。对于基于荧光的测试，需要对多个荧光团进行量化，这需要更多的光谱信息。在这些应用中仍然需要以这些市场所要求的低成本和尺寸保持良好的灵敏度以进行低浓度检测。基于CBVH的多通道光谱仪将在生物化学、医学、制药、工业质量保证、国土安全、矿物学和环境监测等领域有广泛的应用。此外，所提出的技术为定制传感器的设计提供了实用的解决方案，这些传感器可以在大光谱带宽内进行光学测量。所提出的光谱仪的紧凑和轻便的性质使其成为在如上所述的几个领域中具有高电流需求的手持式传感设备的完美选择。2005年，这项技术可以覆盖的整个美国市场规模为26亿美元，预计到2010年将增长7%。使用具有2D空间光谱输出图案的复杂体积全息图是一种重要的使能技术，其可以影响超出所提出的功能的定制多用途光谱仪（或传感器）的设计。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a new platform for spectrometers using cylindrical beam volume holograms (CBVHs) as dispersive elements. Due to its unique characteristic, the CBVH enables the capability of the design of two-dimensional (2D) spatial-spectral output patterns to significantly enhance the functionality of holographic spectrometers. As an example, a multichannel spectrometer is proposed for deployment by dividing a CBVH into several rows, and each row is specifically designed and recorded to perform wavelength dispersion in a wavelength range (or channel) within the entire spectral bandwidth. Thus, a significant improvement of the spectral bandwidth can be achieved without sacrificing spectral resolution while keeping all merits of a compact, lightweight, low-cost, reliable, and alignment robust spectrometer. With the proposed multichannel spectrometer design, several species of interest can be detected at one shot even though their spectrums are distributed in a very large spectral bandwidth. Due to the design flexibility of volume holograms, this technology enables the design of spectrometers with custom functionalities without adding any complexity (such as more elements and complicated system arrangement) to the system.If successful a spectral sensor system that provides spatial and spectral detection offers great utility to the life science and medical markets. For high throughput screening, it is desired to have multiple channels read simultaneously on a test containing multiple sample sites. For fluorescence based tests, multiple fluorophores need to be quantified requiring more spectral information. Maintaining good sensitivity is still required in these applications for low concentration detection at a low cost and size demanded by these markets. The proposed multichannel spectrometer based on CBVH will have a broad range of applications in the fields of biochemistry, medicine, pharmaceuticals, industrial quality assurance, homeland security, mineralogy, and environmental monitoring. Moreover, the proposed technology offers a practical solution for the design of custom sensors that can perform optical measurement in a large spectral bandwidth. The compact and lightweight nature of the proposed spectrometer makes it a perfect choice for handheld sensing devices that are of high current demand in several fields as mentioned above. The entire US market volume that can be covered by this technology has been $2.6B in 2005, with a prospected 7% growth rate through 2010. The use of sophisticated volume holograms with 2D spatial-spectral output patterns is an important enabling technology that can impact the design of custom multi-purpose spectrometers (or sensors) beyond the proposed functionalities.