Researchers at UTokyo have developed a new Infrared Spectroscopy method, used to analyze and identify different molecules, that is nearly 100 times faster than current technologies. Infrared spectroscopy is used to identify what molecules are present in a sample of a substance with a high degree of accuracy.
Infrared spectroscopy works by measuring infrared light transmitted or reflected from molecules in a sample. The vibrations for each sample alter the characteristics of the light in very specific ways, providing a chemical spectrum, or fingerprint, which is read by a detector and computer.
A technique called dual-comb spectroscopy reached a measurement rate of 1 million spectra per second. However, in many instances, more rapid observations are required in order to produce fine-grain data. This was the main reason Associate Professor Takuro Ideguchi, from the Institute for Photon Science and Technology, at the University of Tokyo, and his team decided to create the fastest infrared spectroscopy system to date.
"We developed the world's fastest infrared spectrometer, which runs at 80 million spectra per second," said Ideguchi. "This method, time-stretch infrared spectroscopy, is about 100 times faster than dual-comb spectroscopy, which had reached an upper-speed limit due to issues of sensitivity."
Ideguchi went on to say, “Natural science is based on experimental observations. Therefore, new measurement techniques can open up new scientific fields". He continued, "Researchers in many fields can build on what we've done here and use our work to enhance their own understanding and powers of observation."