Live
- Federal Bank Reports 20% Growth in Advances for Q1
- Graeme Smith lauds South Africa's performance at ICC T20 World Cup
- Farmers' welfare is the goal says Minister Ramanaidu
- Govt's focus on non-polluting energy sources to boost private, public transport: Gadkari
- PE, VC investments reached $6.9 billion in May: Report
- Sebi Enforces Stricter Rules to Combat Market Abuse in Stock Trading
- BC Welfare Minister Savithamma Takes Action on Student Complaints at KGBV School in Papireddy Palli
- CA chief Hockley commits to resume bilateral cricket with Afghanistan
- Dr. Mallema Venugopal Reddy's Diverse Services Commended by Community Members
- Bengal coal smuggling case: Process for ‘framing of charges’ in CBI court postponed
New optical device can detect drugs, explosives
Scientists have developed a new light-based sensor that can help detect drugs in blood, traces of explosives in the environment as well as track diseases.
New York: Scientists have developed a new light-based sensor that can help detect drugs in blood, traces of explosives in the environment as well as track diseases.
Scientists used an approach known as spectroscopy 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 University of Buffalo in the US.
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 nanometres (a human hair is roughly 75,000 nanometres in diameter) between two metal layers.
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, researchers said.
The process is known as surface-enhanced infrared 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.
