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Chemistry’s Robert Levis (left), along with graduate students Elizabeth Judge (center) and George Heck, demonstrate remote sensing technology using a femtosecond laser at the Center for Advanced Photonics Research.
Robert Levis, chair of chemistry and director of the Center for Advanced Photonics Research(CAPR), has been awarded a three-year, $3 million grant with a two-year, $2 million renewal option— from the federal government to develop new chemical sensors using laser based technology that will allow “chemical mapping” through remote or stand-off detection.
According to Levis, most matter that we come in contact with consists of molecules, and almost every event in nature has a chemical signature. “If you can figure out a way to map molecules at a distance to see the signatures, you can then chemically map remote terrain and urban structures or track events where they happen, even days after the events occur,” he said.
Levis said the project, which is being funded through the Army Research Office, will develop new detection methodologies, or chemical sensors, that leverage technologies previously developed by CAPR through multimillion dollar grants forsuch projects as the use of photonics reagentsand chemical threat agent detection. The coreapproach for the chemical sensors, he said,would transition technology developed in theseprevious projects.
“It’s like we took an engine outof a Cadillac and built a hydroplane aroundit,” said Levis, a pioneer in laser-based chemistry,adaptive photonics and bio-photonics. “Thisnew technology has been enhanced with strongmath and theory components.”
CAPR, which is focused on developing newscience and technologies through intense lasermolecule interactions, has three of the mostpowerful laser systems on the East Coast, eachwith state of the-art laser pulse shaping capabilities.Research ranges from probing fundamental physicsprinciples to creating cyclic ozone to detectingchemical warfare agents.
“We have already demonstrated the ability todistinguish between materials that are veryclosely related at a distance of about 30 meters,”said Levis, who will serve as co-principal investigatoron the project along with Dmitri Romanov, aresearch associate professor in physics anda member of CAPR. “If something was on a wallabout 30 meters away, we can tell you exactlywhat is on there in less than a second. Thecore advance of the technology is the way tomap molecules at a distance.”
Levis said the new technology would offer awide range of applications, including atmosphericsensing for pollutants, mapping terrain andassaying the integrity of structures such asbridges and skyscrapers.
“We envision being able to use thistechnology for solving engineering problems,”he said. “For example, with the condition ofa lot of our bridges today, we are worried aboutwhat is going on in certain sections of thestructure that are not easily reachable. Wecould spend days or weeks setting up a scaffoldto inspect it or, we easily could ‘map it’ froma distance with these sensors and see what theatomic and molecular makeup is of the materialsin that section in a few minutes.”
Temple created the Center for AdvancedPhotonics Research when it recruited Levis tothe university in 2002. “This is just anothergood example of how a wise investment by theuniversity has led to cutting edge research,”Levis said.
In addition to Temple, the Army ResearchOffice has awarded similar grants to MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and Princeton University.Levis and CAPR will collaborate with ProteusOptics, the mathematics department at Yale Universityand Plain Sight Systems on the grant.
By Preston M. Moretz
preston.moretz@temple.edu