Feasibility of a Fiber-Dispersive Raman Spectrometer for Biomarker Detection.

Raman spectroscopy is among the top analytical techniques for ultra-low-dense organic matter, crucial to the search for life and analysis of celestial body surfaces in space exploration missions. Achieving the ultimate sensitivity of in-situ Raman spectroscopy necessitates a breakthrough in detecting inelastically scattered light. Single-photon detectors (SPDs) operating in photon counting mode, which can differentiate between Raman and luminescence responses, are promising candidates for the challenging scientific requirements. Since large SPD arrays are not yet commercially available, a dispersive element can be adapted to a single-pixel detector. By exploiting chromatic dispersion in optical fibers and picosecond-pulsed excitation, we delay the arrivals of different spectral components onto a single-pixel SPD. This method also separates weak Raman signals from stronger luminescence through correlated time-domain measurements. We study the impact of fiber properties and the excitation wavelength of a pulsed laser on the spectral resolution of the fiber-dispersive Raman spectrometer (FDRS). Additionally, we demonstrate the FDRS's potential for studying biomarkers and discuss its feasibility for analyzing inclusions in ice matrices.

Effect of LIBS-Induced Alteration on Subsequent Raman Analysis of Iron Sulfides.

Mineral alteration is a possible side effect of spectroscopic techniques involving laser ablation, such as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and is related to the interaction of the generated plasma and ablated material with samples, dust, or ambient atmosphere. Therefore, it is essential to understand these interactions for analytical techniques involving laser ablation, especially for space research. In this combined LIBS-Raman analytical study, pyrite (FeS2) and pyrrhotite (Fe1-x S) samples have been consecutively measured with LIBS and Raman spectroscopy, under three different atmospheric conditions: ∼10-4 mbar (atmosphereless body), ∼7 mbar, and Martian atmospheric composition (Martian surface conditions), and 1 bar and Martian atmospheric composition. Furthermore, a dust layer was simulated using ZnO powder in a separate test and applied to pyrite under Martian atmospheric conditions. In all cases, Raman spectra were obscured after the use of LIBS in the area of and around the formed crater. Additional Raman transitions were detected, associated with sulfur (pyrite, 7.0 mbar and 1.0 bar), polysulfides (all conditions), and magnetite (both minerals, 1.0 bar). Magnetite and polysulfides formed a thin film of up to 350-420 and 70-400 nm in the outer part of the LIBS crater, respectively. The ZnO-dust test led to the removal of the dust layer, with a similar alteration to the nondust pyrite test at 7.0 mbar. The tests indicate that recombination with the CO2-rich atmosphere is significant at least for pressures from 1.0 bar and that plasma-dust interaction is insignificant. The formation of sulfur and polysulfides indicates fractionation and possible loss of volatile elements caused by the heat of the LIBS laser. This should be taken into account when interpreting combined LIBS-Raman analyses of minerals containing volatile elements on planetary surfaces.

Highly efficient THz four-wave mixing in doped silicon.

Third-order non-linearities are important because they allow control over light pulses in ubiquitous high-quality centro-symmetric materials like silicon and silica. Degenerate four-wave mixing provides a direct measure of the third-order non-linear sheet susceptibility χ(3)L (where L represents the material thickness) as well as technological possibilities such as optically gated detection and emission of photons. Using picosecond pulses from a free electron laser, we show that silicon doped with P or Bi has a value of χ(3)L in the THz domain that is higher than that reported for any other material in any wavelength band. The immediate implication of our results is the efficient generation of intense coherent THz light via upconversion (also a χ(3) process), and they open the door to exploitation of non-degenerate mixing and optical nonlinearities beyond the perturbative regime.