SBIR Phase II: Ultra-Compact, Low-Cost, and Robust Volume Holographic Spectrometers

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目专注于将一种新型的超紧凑、低成本、坚固耐用和对齐不敏感的漫反射源光谱仪商业化，与传统的狭缝光谱仪相比，这种光谱仪的成本更低，总体性能更好。智能优势：当前市场上可用的光谱仪基于大约100年前发明的核心技术。传统光谱仪的主要问题是体积大，对输入对准敏感，相对昂贵，光学吞吐量低，因为系统需要窄缝、透镜、高质量的薄光栅和探测器阵列。由于便携性、成本和灵敏度是目前生物和环境传感应用中最关心的问题，因此需要一种新的光谱仪来满足这些需求。这项研究是为了商业化一种超紧凑、低成本、坚固耐用、对准不灵敏的光谱仪，它只由一个体全息图和一个探测器阵列组成。提出的光谱仪的工作频率范围和光谱带宽满足了大多数实际应用的要求。该光谱仪还可用于形成具有任何所需光谱传递函数的专用功能光谱仪。如果成功，建议的光谱仪将在生物化学、医药、制药、工业质量保证、国土安全、矿物学和环境目的等领域有广泛的应用。具体地说，在光源具有漫反射性质的应用中(例如，荧光光谱学)，所开发的光谱仪将在所有现有技术中显示出最佳的灵敏度。拟议中的光谱仪具有超紧凑、轻便的特性，使其成为上述几个领域对电流需求较大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年将以7%的速度增长。使用体全息图(通常记录在像光致聚合物这样的低成本材料中)来取代多个笨重的光学元件(例如，光谱仪中的狭缝、准直透镜和傅里叶变换透镜)是一项重要的使能技术，它可以影响所提议的功能之外的几个应用(例如，成像和传感)。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on the commercialization of a new class of ultra-compact, low-cost, robust, and alignment insensitive spectrometer for diffuse source spectroscopy with lower cost and considerably better overall performance compared to conventional slit-based spectrometers.Intellectual merits: The spectrometers available in the current market are based on core technologies invented around one hundred years ago. The main problems of the traditional spectrometers are being bulky, sensitive to input alignment, relatively expensive, and low optical throughput, because narrow slits, lenses, high quality thin gratings, and the detector array are required in the system. As the portability, cost, and sensitivity are top concerns in recent biological and environmental sensing applications, a new class of spectrometers that satisfy those needs is in high demand. The proposed research is to commercialize an ultra-compact, low-cost, robust, and alignment insensitive spectrometer, which is composed of only a volume hologram and a detector array. The operation frequency range and the spectral bandwidth of the proposed spectrometers cover the requirements of most practical applications. The spectrometers can also be used to form special-purpose functional spectrometers with any desired spectral transfer function. If successful the proposed spectrometer will have a broad range of applications in the fields of biochemistry, medicine, pharmaceuticals, industrial quality assurance, homeland security, mineralogy, and environmental purposes. Specifically, in the applications where the light source has a diffuse nature (e.g., fluorescence spectroscopy) the developed spectrometer will show the best sensitivity among all the existing technologies. The ultra-compact lightweight nature of the proposed spectrometers makes them a perfect choice for handheld sensing devices that are of high current demand in several fields 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 volume holograms (which are typically recorded in low-cost materials like photopolymers) to replace multiple bulky optics (e.g., slit, collimating lens, and Fourier transforming lens in the case of spectrometer) is an important enabling technology that can impact several applications (e.g., imaging and sensing) beyond the proposed functionalities.