New Lamellar Grating Interferometer for Spectroscopy

NASA is interested characterizing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases critical to global warming phenomena, and their fluxes over time. For this reason, NASA has invested in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), which comprises sun trackers with high resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometers. NASA is currently looking to expand their observation network in order to provide more data for their atmospheric research, but this will require a reduction in spectrometer size and cost. OPTRA proposes to address this need through the development of a novel hybrid spectrometer design that leverages the strengths of Michelson and lamellar grating interferometers, while mitigating their individual weaknesses. The end result will be a compact, rugged, low cost spectrometer capable of the same performance as the current TCCON network. This technology will further be extendable to any applications where spectral data is required, but instrument size and cost are at a premium. Examples include methane pipeline monitoring, volcano emission characterization or UAV-based remote sensing.

The proposed technology will be applicable to a wide variety of applications for which a spectrometer is needed to characterize or quantify chemicals of interest, but where size and cost are at a premium. NASA missions that may specifically benefit from hybrid LGI infusion include Earth Science and Planetary Exploration. Sample applications within these broader research areas include characterization of sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes, monitoring of methane pipelines, remote sensing from UAV platforms or in situ characterization of samples from a rover.

As environmental regulation of emissions increases, the market for compact, low cost chemical sensing technologies similarly increases in order to demonstrate compliance. In addition, natural gas companies require a method to monitor their pipelines to prevent significant losses and to minimize the environmental impact of their operations. A compact, low cost system that could be integrated into a drone platform would effectively address these needs.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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