Sunday, 20 September 2009

New Laser Provides Spectrum Of Sensing Data


In art, color is information. Just look at a painting by an artist such as Monet: Each uniquely hued brushstroke brings to life a new blade of grass, a leaf, a flower petal, a slice of sky -- each a component of the complete picture.

Scientists, too, use color to paint clearer pictures of the things -- everything from combustion gases to cancer cells -- they study. And as a result of a new laser system that rapidly delivers a pulsed rainbow of colors, those pictures will contain more information than ever before. Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Scott Sanders developed the system, which is highlighted in the cover story of the May issue of Optics and Photonics News.

Laser light can indicate a research subject's characteristics. "We'd like to illuminate our subject with as many colors as possible, because we can get a lot of information about the subject by monitoring its color-sensitivity," says Sanders, who is affiliated with the UW-Madison Engine Research Center (ERC).

At the ERC, combustion gases comprise one area of study. "They absorb certain colors of light and not others," he says. "And so if we put in one color, we might see some absorption or not, but if we put in a lot of colors, we can see all of the signatures of all of the gasses in the engine, because they all have some unique color dependence."

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