Scientists develop new optical device,that can detect drugs,explosives

A new light-based sensor has developed by Scientists that can help detect drugs in blood, traces of explosives in the environment as well as track diseases. An approach known as spectroscopy was used by Scientists which involves studying how light interacts with trace amounts of matter. "This new optical device has the potential to improve our abilities to detect all sorts of biological and chemical samples," said Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor at the University of Buffalo in the US.

The study was published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials. The new sensor works with light in the mid-infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This part of the spectrum is used for most remote controls, night-vision, and other applications. The sensor consists of two layers of metal with an insulator sandwiched in between. Using a fabrication technique called atomic layer deposition, researchers created a device with gaps less than five nanometers (a human hair is roughly75,000 nanometres in diameter) between two metal layers.

Researchers said that these gaps enable the sensor to absorb up to 81 per cent of infrared light, a significant improvement from the three per cent that similar devices absorb, the process is known as surface-enhanced infra red absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. The sensor, which acts as a substrate for the materials being examined, boosts the sensitivity of SEIRA devices to detect molecules at 100 to 1,000 times greater resolution than previously reported results, researchers said.

The increase makes SEIRA spectroscopy comparable to another type of spectroscopic analysis, surface-enhanced Rama spectroscopy (SERS), which measures light scattering as opposed to absorption. "The SEIRA advancement could be useful in any scenario that calls for finding traces of molecules," said Dengxin Ji, a Ph.D. candidate in Gan's lab. "This includes but is not limited to drug detection in blood, bomb-making materials, fraudulent art and tracking diseases," Ji added.