A pearl spectrometer can provide new information processing options for biomedical innovations

(Nanowerk News) Pearls have long been favored as objects of beauty. Now, Purdue University innovators are using the gem to provide potential new opportunities for spectral information processing that can be applied to spectroscopy in biomedical and military applications.

The Purdue team demonstrated light-transport-assisted information processing by creating a pearl spectrometer. The brilliant reflection of a pearl offers a concept of hybrid material and digital properties for processing spectral information. (Image: Purdue University)

Spectrometers probe the interactions between matter and light as a function of the electromagnetic spectrum and are commonly used in biomedical and military applications. For example, they have been used for diagnostics of various types of cancer and for military gas detection.

?? Unfortunately, the widespread uses and practical adaptations of spectroscopy are often limited due to the need for conventional spectrometers, ?? said Young Kim, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue. ?? Current spectrometers rely on complex device assemblies, high-precision alignment, and large or physical dimensions, which prevent rapid translation into practical applications.

The work is published in Nano Letters (“A Pearl Spectrometer”).

?? We found that pearls are an ideal natural object for light localization Anderson, named after Nobel laureate Philip Anderson, whose concept was extended to describe how light undergoes resonances within materials due to their strong dispersion , ?? Kim said.

Yunsang Kwak, a postdoctoral fellow in Purdue’s lab, said, “Anderson’s light localization offers high randomness that is extremely useful for compression detection, particularly for conducting information processing with a factor thin and flat in shape by simply attaching a pearl like a multispectral filter array on a conventional camera.

Kim said: “We don’t think direct use of a pearl is a good option for mass production of multispectral filter arrays. Instead, the beads teach us how to design Anderson’s disordered light-localization nanostructures to develop a new class of spectral information processing machines.

Purdue researchers are seeking their new discovery to provide scientists with an insight into hybridizing material and digital properties that could be useful for breakthroughs in biomedical and defense applications.