Agent Reactive Modulated Optical Reflector for Hazardous Agent Detection

摘要

Early detection of chemical and biological agents from standoff distances has significant practical importance. The Agent Reactive Modulated Optical Reflector (ARMOR) approach described in this paper has the potential to provide a long-range eye safe detection solution by producing an extremely large change in the near infrared (NIR) reflection from micrometer to centimeter-scale devices with exposure to a wide range of chemical agents, toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The ARMOR is based on a Salisbury Screen Absorber (SSA) extended to the NIR range. We fabricated and characterized device prototypes that exhibited more than a 20 dB difference in reflection contrast following a 2 sec exposure to 2000 ppm of HCl vapor.