Spectrometer Can Now Fit In A Smartphone Camera & Detect Skin Diseases

Scientists have been using spectrometers from a long time for biomedical, physical and chemical research work. Those small instruments that can measure the properties of light have now become tinier and can easily fit inside a smartphone's camera. A team of researchers from MIT have shown how it's possible to use quantum dots or semiconductor nanoparticles to shrink the spectrometer in a size that can be used in a mobile device and thereby add a lot of useful functions to your personal gadget. A spectrometer residing in a mobile camera can detect environmental pollution, determine the condition of foodstuffs, test urine samples, track vital signs such as pulse and oxygen level and even help in diagnosing skin diseases by measuring exposure to different frequencies of ultraviolet light in the surrounding.

MIT-QuantumDot-spectrometer-research
An Illustration of the Quantum Dot (QD) spectrometer device printing QD filters​

The MIT research team has been able to reduce the size of a spectrometer to that of a U.S. quarter which is approximately of the size 25 mm x 1.75 mm.

Discovered in 1980s, Quantum dots are the nanocrystals created by combining lead or cadmium with sulfur or selenium. Scientists control the ratio of these elements, the temperature as well as the reaction time to generated thousands of quantum dots with differences in an electronic property known as bandgap, a property that shows the wavelengths of light that each dot will absorb.

Till date quantum dots have found applications primarily in studying of atomic processes and analyzing of tissue samples for biomedical research.

The new quantum dot spectrometer deploys hundreds of quantum dot filters which are later printed into a thin film. Then, they are placed on top of a photodetector such as the charge-coupled devices found in smartphone cameras.

The MIT researchers have also created an algorithm that analyzes the percentage of photons absorbed by each filter and recombines the data from each one to calculate the intensity and wavelength of the original rays of light.

In other words, the more the quantum dot materials, the more wavelengths can be covered and the higher resolution can be obtained.

The MIT team used about 200 types of quantum dots spread over a range of about 300 nanometers. With more dots, these spectrometers could be designed to cover an even wider range of light frequencies.

What are your thoughts about this research work? Share with us in comments below.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-#

Replies

  • Ravinder jamwal
    Ravinder jamwal
    great andadvantageous work

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