This research is to develop a holographic species analyzer for detecting chemical species. This analyzer will operate through a holographic memory designed to recognize the whole light patterns from different species and generate a position-sensitive mapping of species in an output plane. This technology is to replace a diffraction grating and will have many advantages: 1) it will be highly selective, 2) it will not include any wavelength scanning, 3) a master template can be computer generated once and then copied, 4) the output displays a peak for a species to be monitored, and 5) a compact "smart card" approach to a contact species analysis is possible. The project, if successful, will lay foundation for a new, high performance method of chemical analysis and a new class of commercial analyzers for environmental, biomedical, process control, and food processing, and other applications.
