Can it monitor liver disease by analyzing patients’ breath?
Nobel Prize winner C. V. Raman discovered in the 1920s that bombarding a substance with light excites its molecules and scatters the light in a signature pattern that can be analyzed like a fingerprint. Today Raman spectrometers are used in a variety of settings, but they tend to be large and expensive. A team led by physicist Manfred Fink of the University of Texas at Austin is developing a smaller, less expensive model that may improve earthquake detection and bring down the cost of some medical tests.
Fink’s device, which is about the size of a suitcase, does not measure the entire light spectrum but only one featured line containing the known signature for a target molecule. Inside the device, called the Analytic Non-Dispersive Raman Spectrometer, is a small diode laser whose light beam bounces between two concave mirrors to amplify its power. This light amplification also increases the sensitivity of the device, making it possible to measure impurities in parts per billion.
Read more . . .
Bookmark this page for “spectrometer” and check back regularly as these articles update on a very frequent basis. The view is set to “news”. Try clicking on “video” and “2” for more articles.