First circularly polarized light detector

November 18, 2015

CPL, the first ever circularly polarized light detector planted on a silicon chip was developed by a team of engineers at Vanderbilt University in collaboration with researchers at Ohio University. The invention is an important milestone that can be used in surveillance, quantum computing, drug screening and many other applications.

Polarized light is available in two basic forms: linear and circular. In circularly polarized light, the fields lie in a plane and it rotates 360 degrees continuously. Humans cannot distinguish the polarization state of light, but a lot of other species that possess “p-vision”, including shrimp, bees, cuttlefish, cricket, bees and ants. CPL can detect the difference between right or left handed versions of molecules and the property is called chirality.

Circularly polarized light detector detectors can provide a very good sensing of drugs.  Portable detectors could be used to determine drug chirality. Such innovative method of detecting a drug’s chirality could bring a big difference in the medicine world.  The number of chiral drugs in use today is estimated to be 2,500 and most new drugs under development are chiral. The current prototype is not commercially viable, but the engineers are working hard to improve the efficiency in the next generation devices.

Source:http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/materials/reseachers-create-first-integrated-circularly-polarized-light-detector-on-a-silicon-chip