A non-contact, laser-based technology is deployed to monitor the detailed mechanical operations of the various chambers and valves of the heart. The high sensitivity, optical speckle-tolerant laser technology enables cardiac signature detection from the skin vascular network at all locations throughout the patient’s body surface, even in the presence of light-blocking surface coverage such as clothing and shoes. In experiments, observed signal features are identified with specific cardiac activity and corroborated with other modalities including electrocardiography. To demonstrate applicability, cardiac monitoring signals were obtained from patients with widely varying ethnical backgrounds. Abnormal signal from one patient exhibiting sinus arrhythmic symptoms was collected and analyzed, indicating the technology’s potential for medical diagnostics.
Standoff detection of dangerous chemicals like explosives, nerve gases, and harmful aerosols has continuously been an important subject due to the serious concern about terrorist threats to both overseas and homeland lives and facility. Compared with other currently available standoff optical detection techniques, like Raman, photo-thermal, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy,...etc., photoacoustic (PA) sensing has the advantages of background free and very high detection sensitivity, no need of back reflection surfaces, and 1/R instead of 1/R2 signal decay distance dependence. Furthermore, there is still a great room for PA sensitivity improvement by using different PA techniques, including lockin amplifier, employing new microphones, and microphone array techniques. Recently, we have demonstrated standoff PA detection of isopropanol vapor, solid phase TNT and RDX at a standoff distance. To further calibrate the detection sensitivity, we use nerve gas simulants that were generated and calibrated by a commercial vapor generator. For field operations, array of microphones and microphone-reflector pairs can be utilized to achieve noise rejection and signal enhancement. We have experimentally demonstrated signal enhancement and noise reduction using an array of 4 microphone/4 reflector system as well as an array of 16-microphone/1 reflector. In this work we will review and compare different standoff techniques and discuss the advantages of using different photoacoustic techniques. We will also discuss new advancement of using new types of microphone and the performance comparison of using different structure of microphone arrays and combining lock-in amplifier with acoustic arrays. Demonstration of out-door real-time operations with high power mid-IR laser and microphone array will be presented.
KEYWORDS: Amplifiers, Signal to noise ratio, Reflectors, Interference (communication), Acoustics, Signal detection, Standoff detection, Photoacoustic spectroscopy, Environmental sensing, Signal generators
Mid-infrared (MIR) standoff photoacoustic (PA) sensing of explosive chemicals and nerve gas stimulants at calibrated concentration have been demonstrated in door. When they are operated out door, array beam forming technique has to be employed to reject ambient noise and enhance signal. Lock-in amplifier usually needs to be used to achieve weak signal detection in a noisy environment. If we can combine these two techniques we will be able to reject both spatial and temporal noise and achieve a great signal to noise ratio (SNR) performance. From the best of our knowledge no literature has described how to combine these two techniques. In this work we demonstrated combined array and lock in amplifier operation in outdoor environment. A simplified system includes a signal generator, a speaker source, a lock in amplifier, 4 spy-phones with 4 parabolic reflectors to collect the acoustic signal, a National-Instrument NI6259 data acquisition system with both A to D (ADC) and D to A converters (DAC), and a PC. To combine these two techniques, each of the array collected signals was digitized by the ADC. Their path delays were adjusted in the computer to synchronize the phase. By using a PC controlled ADC the processing time is very long (~1s). To synchronize them without using costly high-speed customer made hardware, we delayed the reference signal by send it through the same ADC- PCDAC path as the array signals. By doing so, a good lock-in operation with stable phase was obtained.
We report standoff detection of explosives using quantum cascade laser (QCL) and photoacoustic technique. In our
experiment, a QCL with emission wavelength near 7.35 μm was used and operated at pulsed mode. The output light was focused on Trinitrotoluene (TNT) sample in its powder form. Photoacoustic signals were generated and detected by an
ultra-sensitive low-noise microphone with one inch diameter. A detection distance up to 8 inches was obtained using the
microphone alone. With the increasing detection distance the measured photoacoustic signal not only decayed in amplitude but also delayed in phase, which clearly verified the source location. To further increase the detection distance, a parabolic sound reflector was used for effective sound collection. With the help of the sound reflector, standoff photoacoustic detection of TNT with distance of 8 feet was demonstrated.
Polycrystalline ceramic laser materials are gaining importance in the development of novel diode-pumped solid-state
lasers. Compared to single-crystals, ceramic laser materials offer advantages in terms of ease of fabrication, shape, size,
and control of dopant concentrations. Recently, we have developed Neodymium doped Yttria (Nd:Y2O3) as a solid-state
ceramic laser material. A scalable production method was utilized to make spherical non agglomerated and
monodisperse metastable ceramic powders of compositions that were used to fabricate polycrystalline ceramic material
components. This processing technique allowed for higher doping concentrations without the segregation problems that
are normally encountered in single crystalline growth. We have successfully fabricated undoped and Neodymium doped
Yttria material up to 2" in diameter, Ytterbium doped Yttria, and erbium doped Yttria. We are also in the process of
developing other sesquioxides such as scandium Oxide (Sc2O3) and Lutesium Oxide (Lu2O3) doped with Ytterbium,
erbium and thulium dopants. In this paper, we present our initial results on the material, optical, and spectroscopic
properties of the doped and undoped sesquioxide materials. Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential
applications including remote sensing, chem.-bio detection, and space exploration research. It is also potentially much
less expensive to produce ceramic laser materials compared to their single crystalline counterparts because of the shorter
fabrication time and the potential for mass production in large sizes.
In this paper, recent progress made towards the development of transparent Nd doped ceramic yttria is presented.
Using 99.99% pure raw materials and with improved material processing techniques, Nd doped ceramic yttria test
samples greater than 99% transmission at 2000nm wavelength and bandedge <250nm have been produced. The test
samples were >1" x 1" x 10mm in dimensions. Nd ions were successfully incorporated into undoped ceramic yttria
material through diffusion process.
We demonstrate experimentally an optical scanning technique for measuring the step heights of surface features without using conventional optical interferometers. This technique involves the deployment of the so-called photo-EMF sensors that are capable of sensing the presence of step-like features on an otherwise optically flat surface. Scanning of the target surface is achieved by rotating the object being investigated while keeping the laser beam stationary. Theoretical modeling and experimental data will be presented indicating the resolution of step-like features with merely 15 nm in height.
High power solid state tunable lasers have played an important role in providing the technology necessary for active remote sensing and would be very useful for space exploration. Many recent studies on diode-pumped solid state lasers have focused on polycrystalline ceramic lasers. We present our initial results on the material, optical, and spectroscopic properties of a solid-state ceramic laser material using neodymium doped Yttria (Nd:Y2O3). Using a proprietary scalable production method, spherical non agglomerated and monodisperse ceramic powders of Nd:Y2O3 are made that can be used to fabricate polycrystalline ceramic material disks with sintered grain size in a suitable range. Initially, we produced translucent material with good emission properties. In further studies we have successfully prepared transparent Nd:Yttria ceramic material. Polycrystalline ceramic lasers have enormous potential commercial applications, which include remote sensing, chemical detection and space exploration research. Furthermore, the cost to produce ceramic laser materials is potentially much lower than that for single crystal materials because of the shorter time it takes to fabricate the material and also because of the possibility of mass production. The polycrystalline ceramic material that we have produced will be characterized for its suitability as a diode pumped solid state laser. Different laser designs will be discussed including end-pumping schemes and the thin-disk laser configuration.
Preliminary results on utilization of CdTe:V photo-EMF detectors for broad-band (≈ 10 MHz) adaptive detection of optical phase modulation, which is necessary for laser ultrasonic applications, are reported. Unlike widely used GaAs photo-EMF detectors, devices under consideration demonstrate no remarkable electron-hole competition and ensure sensitivity necessary for detection of ≈ 2 nm surface displacement for 0.1 mW of signal beam power in simple transverse configuration without utilization of asymmetric interdigitated surface contacts. For the wavelength used (λ = 851 nm) dielectric cut-off frequency of typical CdTe:V detector was around 1 MHz, which, in principle allows us monitoring of as-processed objects moving with in-plane velocity up to 10 m/s.
We review the principles of a new kind of optical Doppler frequency detectors and their applications to laser radars. These novel optical frequency sensors are based on the recently investigated moving space charge field effects found in photoconductive semiconductors. The photocurrent generated by the moving space charge field photodetectors is linearly proportional to the Doppler frequency shift suffered by the probing signal beam relative to the local reference laser beam and constitutes the unique directional discrimination capability in optical frequency detection not easily found in other forms of Doppler frequency detection schemes. Application of these novel Doppler frequency detectors to laser radars lead to significantly compact, economical, and power efficient systems. Simple feasibility demonstration of the proposed concept is also presented.
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