SBIR Phase I: Development of New Time and Spatially-Resolved, Near-Infrared Photoluminescence Techniques Detecting Trapped Charge in Inorganic Sediments for Geochronology Dating

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种快速、脉冲近红外光致发光(P-NIR-PL)和微米空间分辨率的受激发光(SL)技术，作为一种最先进的无机沉积物光致发光测年方法，大大提高样品处理的精确度、准确度和周转时间。皮秒-近红外光谱分析平台是新一代无机沉积物分析平台。该团队试图捕捉大约1到20万年前的地质年代学数据。该方法通过快速检测重叠的PL信号来解决样本处理方面的挑战，这些重叠的PL信号将被去卷积并与年龄相关。如果成功，这个项目将为地质学家和考古学家提供新的能力，他们致力于研究新的地质年代学方法，以确定未来外星遗址的火山土、烧焦物质和沙子/岩石材料的年代。如果光学测年能够快速、无破坏性地、在亚单颗粒水平上重复区分并以最少的样品前处理可靠地进行，则存在着相当大的利基市场和强大的商业化机会。该项目的智力优势集中在仪器开发上，以满足对利用先进的空间和时间分辨显微镜方法区分沉积物中的石英和长石的迫切需求，该方法具有地质年代学测定的剂量/年代测定能力。分离以前未知的PL和SL衰变将建立一种新的地质年代学方法，通过将探测扩展到近红外来实现。具有皮秒到秒动力学衰变分辨率的皮秒脉冲激光光源将与高空间分辨率相结合，以涵盖广泛的激发/发射轮廓，从而独特地将一次测量所需的时间从13小时缩短到20分钟。具体地说，时间分辨和空间分辨相结合的成分创造了一种强大的技术来区分分子和晶体环境，以及区分来自相似光谱和独特元素微结构的发射。拟议的活动可能会推动脉冲光学/近红外测年方法的工程和科学创新，重点是用于快速样品筛选的高性能、商业仪器的开发。建立最先进的光学测年仪器和分析测试服务将由一个新的多元化客户群执行，并实施一个在线地质年代库。该奖项反映了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。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a rapid, Pulsed Near-Infrared Photoluminescence (P-NIR-PL) and Stimulated Luminescence (SL) technique with micron spatial resolution, as a state-of-the art photoluminescence dating method for inorganic sediments, with substantially improved precision, accuracy, and turn-around time for sample processing. Picosecond-NIR-PL is a next-generation analytical platform for inorganic sediments. The team seeks to capture geochronological data from ~1 to 200,000 years prior. The approach addresses challenges with sample processing through the rapid detection of overlapping PL signals that will be deconvoluted and correlated to age. If successful, this project will provide new capabilities to geologists and archaeologists working on new geochronological methods for dating volcanic soils, charred materials, and sand/rock materials from future extraterrestrial sites. A sizable niche market and strong commercialization opportunity exists if optical dating measurements can be performed rapidly and non-destructively, repeatedly with differentiation on the sub single-grain level, and reliably with minimal sample pre-treatment. The intellectual merit of this project focuses on instrument development to address the immediate demand for an accurate tool for differentiation of quartz and feldspar detection in sediments using an advanced spatial and time-resolved microscopy method with an attached dosing/dating capability for geochronological dating. Separation of PL and SL decays that are previously unexplained will establish a novel geochronological method achieved by expanding the detection into the near-infrared. A picosecond pulsed laser source with picosecond-to-second resolution in kinetic decay will be combined with high spatial resolution to cover a wide range of excitation/emission profiles that uniquely shorten the time required for a single measurement, from 13 hours to 20 minutes. Specifically, the combined time-resolved and spatially-resolved components create a powerful technique to distinguish molecular and crystalline environments as well as to distinguishing emissions from similar spectra and unique elemental microstructures. The proposed activities may advance engineering and science innovation in pulsed optical/NIR dating methods with a focus on high performance, commercial instrument development for rapid sample screening. Establishment of both the state-of-the-art instrumentation and analytical testing service for optical dating will be performed by a new diversified customer segment with implementation of an online geochronological library.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.