Description:
This innovation is a general method to measure very small changes to the center frequency of a light pulse. When applied to Raman spectroscopy, it should enable previously unreachable “single molecule detection” levels of sensitivity.
At a Glance
- Method and device for measuring very small frequency shifts in an optical pulse
- This type of frequency shift cannot be measured using standard interferometry
- Applicable to any frequency shift that is the same pulse to pulse
- For Raman spectroscopy, this technology should lead to orders of magnitude sensitivity improvement (“single molecule detection”)
Detailed Description
This innovation is a method and device for measuring very small changes in optical frequency in a chain of optical pulses. It is far more sensitive that other approaches and is applicable to frequency shifts that cannot be measured by standard interferometric approaches. The technology is widely applicable and is well suited for detecting any frequency shift that is the same pulse to pulse.
The key to the technology is to convert the optical frequency shift to a time delay, which is easily measured electronically. Although conceptually simple, this technique is powerful and can dramatically increase instrument sensitivity. For example, direct measurement via a grating spectrometer is limited by spectrometer resolution to about 1 GHz. With this technology, frequency shifts of just 1 kHz may be detected, representing an improvement of 6 orders of magnitude.
This innovation was originally conceived for application to Raman spectroscopy and, for this use, offers the exciting possibility of improving Raman sensitivities to the previously unattainable level of single molecule detection.
