SBIR-STTR Award

Monitoring the air for potential chemical and biological agents (from terrorist threats or from industrial contamination) has become a necessity. Our proposal objective is to develop device capable of fast (1 second), accurate (even in a chemically complex environment), robust (stand alone, closed-loop, and portable), and reproducible sensing. Operationally, the device interfaces with a commercially available femtosecond pulsed laser and mass spectrometry module. The device operates on the principle of molecular control based on shaped laser fields. Using genetic-algorithm (GA) search methods, a series of laser fields are determined to unequivocally identify each chemical or biological agent of interest. The stand-alone unit monitors for suspected chemical agents. Multiple electromagnetic fields increase the accuracy of chemical identification a million-fold compared to available sensor methods. Upon positive identification, the unit contacts a command center. The goal, for phase I will be to demonstrate that differently shaped laser fields produce uniquely different fragmentation mass spectra, and that such fields can be determined for each chemical or biological sample. Phase II of the project will concentrate on the development of a field-ready stand-alone module capable of detection of contaminants at part per billion levels even in the presence of a chemically complex environment

The desired outcome of this STTR project is the development of compact, stand-alone, economical, and rugged pulse shaper units that can be used to control chemical reactions, and have a wide range of applications based on molecular control for detection of chemical and biological threats, explosive, and toxic chemicals. In addition, these units will enable a broad range of fundamental studies. During Phase II we will subject the breadboard unit successfully developed in Phase I to rigorous testing and evaluation by experts in order to develop an alpha version that will undergo further testing resulting in the beta version pre-commercial prototype. The beta version prototype will be ready for field evaluation by a number of customers in the research, industrial, and military markets, and will be operable for longer than a week without maintenance. Phase III will focus on sales of the commercial products via strategic partnership with laser manufacturers and end users. Based on technical attributes and on a strong intellectual property position, Biophotonic Solutions is poised to become the leader in pulse shaping equipment and its applications in the Homeland Security, Biomedical Technology and research markets.

Keywords:
Pulse Shaping, Molecular Control, Femtosecond Laser,