Sensor system and method for the panoramic standoff detection of chemical contaminants on terrestrial surfaces
First Claim
1. A chemical imaging sensor for detecting and imaging chemical contaminants comprising analytes, said sensor comprising:
- a first component that performs irradiative transient heating;
a second component that performs temperature nonequilibrium thermal luminescence spectroscopy, said second component comprising a spectroradiometer receiver, wherein said spectroradiometer receiver includes a collector optic component group comprising a plurality of hyperboloid mirrors, a Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group comprising a plurality of spherical mirrors, and a stress-solid-state interferometer comprising front and back linear polarizers sandwiching a virtual stack phased-array (VSPA) bar photoelastic modulator (PEM), wherein said VSPA bar PEM comprises a single stress-birefringence ZnSe crystal having an array of ultrasonic-frequency piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) bonded across a length of the crystal, and wherein said VSPA bar PEM is activated by the PZTs generating interferograms at ultrahigh-speed on collimated panoramic field-of-view light incoming from said Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group collected by said collector optic component group;
a third component that performs differential hyperspectral imaging; and
a fourth component that performs artificial neural networking,wherein the first, second, third, and fourth components combine to measure and process a dynamic pattern of absorptive-emissive middle infrared molecular signature spectra of said analytes.
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Abstract
A pseudo-active chemical imaging sensor including irradiative transient heating, temperature nonequilibrium thermal luminescence spectroscopy, differential hyperspectral imaging, and artificial neural network technologies integrated together. The sensor may be applied to the terrestrial chemical contamination problem, where the interstitial contaminant compounds of detection interest (analytes) comprise liquid chemical warfare agents, their various derivative condensed phase compounds, and other material of a life-threatening nature. The sensor measures and processes a dynamic pattern of absorptive-emissive middle infrared molecular signature spectra of subject analytes to perform its chemical imaging and standoff detection functions successfully.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A chemical imaging sensor for detecting and imaging chemical contaminants comprising analytes, said sensor comprising:
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a first component that performs irradiative transient heating; a second component that performs temperature nonequilibrium thermal luminescence spectroscopy, said second component comprising a spectroradiometer receiver, wherein said spectroradiometer receiver includes a collector optic component group comprising a plurality of hyperboloid mirrors, a Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group comprising a plurality of spherical mirrors, and a stress-solid-state interferometer comprising front and back linear polarizers sandwiching a virtual stack phased-array (VSPA) bar photoelastic modulator (PEM), wherein said VSPA bar PEM comprises a single stress-birefringence ZnSe crystal having an array of ultrasonic-frequency piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) bonded across a length of the crystal, and wherein said VSPA bar PEM is activated by the PZTs generating interferograms at ultrahigh-speed on collimated panoramic field-of-view light incoming from said Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group collected by said collector optic component group; a third component that performs differential hyperspectral imaging; and a fourth component that performs artificial neural networking, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth components combine to measure and process a dynamic pattern of absorptive-emissive middle infrared molecular signature spectra of said analytes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of detecting and imaging chemical contaminants, said method comprising:
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providing a sensor comprising a spectroradiometer receiver and a laser transmitter, wherein said spectroradiometer receiver includes a collector optic component group comprising a plurality of hyperboloid mirrors, a Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group comprising a plurality of spherical mirrors, and a stress-solid-state interferometer comprising front and back linear polarizers sandwiching a virtual stack phased-array (VSPA) bar photoelastic modulator (PEM), wherein said VSPA bar PEM comprises a single stress-birefringence ZnSe crystal having an array of ultrasonic-frequency piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) bonded across a length of the crystal, and wherein said VSPA bar PEM is activated by the PZTs generating interferograms at ultrahigh-speed on collimated panoramic field-of-view light incoming from said Schwarzschild objective collimator optics component group collected by said collector optic component group; emitting a linearly-polarized continuous-wave (cw) beam from said laser transmitter in a stable transverse electromagnetic wave spatial mode comprising energy that is absorbing to said chemical contaminants and lies outside an optical bandwidth of said spectroradiometer receiver; producing an incident polarization-modulation beam (iPM-beam) using a stress-birefringence photoelastic modulator (PEM) aligned 45°
to said cw beam;expanding said iPM-beam; reducing a divergence of said iPM-beam; and directing said iPM-beam onto suspect areas containing said chemical contaminants inside a panoramic field-of-view of said spectroradiometer receiver. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification