The first prototype of a spectrometer from domestic components was created in Russia

The MIPT press service reported that they had conducted preliminary tests of a prototype of the first Russian Raman spectrometer. They showed that the device being prepared for release corresponds to the world level at a lower final cost on the Russian market and is suitable for analyzing and identifying the chemical composition of substances of any nature – from biological fluids to precious stones. The mobile interface and compactness, as well as the high accuracy of the device, will provide wide possibilities for its use, the university suggests.

Raman spectrometry is a non-destructive analysis method based on the interaction of light with matter. It is used to determine the vibrational modes of molecules—a kind of “fingerprint” of a substance. Using them, you can identify the analyzed sample with 100% accuracy and obtain data on its structure. Such spectrometers are also used where rapid non-laboratory analysis of substances is needed for the purpose of their accurate identification – in pharmaceuticals and forensics, transport and industrial safety, biomedicine, mineralogy, electronics, chemical and food industries. It is currently impossible to import Raman spectrometers from abroad due to sanctions.

The IR spectrometer developed at MIPT with an exciting laser radiation wavelength of 785 nm, according to the developers, has a number of advantages over imported samples. It is distinguished by a wide spectral range (the wider it is, the more substances the device can detect), the ability to be implemented in various form factors for specific tasks, completely Russian software, and its cost is more than one and a half times lower compared to functional foreign analogues.

“During development, we paid great attention to the development of auxiliary techniques that increase the effectiveness of this device. We are talking about SERS technology (surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy). This is a set of approaches to using special nanostructures and metallized surfaces to multiply Raman scattering of light,” says Artem Brovko, chief designer of the project.

The prototype of the device was created within the framework of the federal project “Development of domestic instrument making for civil purposes for scientific research” and became the first implemented development. At the MIPT site, a printer of plasmonic nanostructures is also being developed, as well as a high-tech high-resolution mass spectrometric complex for the analysis of gas mixtures and a single-beam optical lithograph that exceeds the diffraction limit.

Polina Yachmennikova