Sensor relies on enhanced Raman scattering architecture

The sensor relies on a completely new architecture developed by the Princeton researchers. The device boosts faint signals generated by the scattering of laser light from a material placed on it, enabling the identification of various substances based on the colour of light they reflect.

The technology is an advance in Raman scattering, a phenomena discovered in the 1920s by an Indian physicist, Chandrasekhara Raman, where light reflecting off an object carries a signature of its molecular composition and structure.

’Raman scattering has enormous potential in biological and chemical sensing and could have many applications in industry, medicine, the military and other fields,’ said Prof Stephen Chou, the professor of electrical engineering who led the research teams that developed the sensor.

’But current Raman sensors are so weak that their use has been very limited outside of research,’ he added. ’We’ve developed a way to significantly enhance the signal over the entire sensor, and that could change the landscape of how Raman scattering can be used.’