Eurekalert April 26, 2018
Making use of a mid-infrared femtosecond laser coupled with a parametric amplifier, an international team of researchers (MIT, UMass Lowell, China) developed a system that turns regions of molecules in the open air into glowing filaments of plasma. They proved that it did indeed work as expected. It opens the potential for detecting a very wide range of compounds in the air, from a distance. The system can detect various biohazards and pollutants by detecting the exact color of the filament and analyzing the absorption spectrum… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Simulation results of meta-atoms. Credit: Nature Communications, 16 April 2018