Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful optical technique for measuring the composition of chemical mixtures. Eachx000D
type of molecule has a unique colour "fingerprint" which appears when the chemical sample is illuminated byx000D
low-power laser light. Although highly precise, Raman analysis is often limited by the inherent faintness of thex000D
Raman signal.x000D
Tornado Spectral Systems (Toronto, ON) has invented a new type of spectrometer (colour measurementx000D
device) which overcomes the faintness problem in many cases, but which is still unable to make qualityx000D
measurements of various types of chemical mixtures. These limitations can be overcome by using specializedx000D
nanophotonic/nanoplasmonic optical amplification devices discovered at the University of Toronto. Thesex000D
optical amplifiers can concentrate and intensify light within the nanoscale domains of its surface and hencex000D
enhance the light-matter interaction in close proximity of these domains. Such optical amplifier devices canx000D
significantly boost the strength of the Raman fingerprint signal and hence enable accurate measurements ofx000D
chemical concentrations even under the most difficult conditions.x000D
The objective of this project is to experimentally demonstrate the viability of these novel nanoplasmonicx000D
devices for enhanced detection sensitivity and hence its integration in Tornado's Raman Spectrometer.