Astrobiological polarimeter

Neeraj Kothari; Aliakbar Jafarpour; Tracey L. Thaler; Rick Trebino; Andreas S. Bommarius

doi:10.1117/12.736045

1 October 2007 Astrobiological polarimeter

Neeraj Kothari, Aliakbar Jafarpour, Tracey L. Thaler, Rick Trebino, Andreas S. Bommarius

Proceedings Volume 6694, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology X; 669419 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.736045
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Chirality is an excellent indicator of life, but naturally occurring terrestrial and extra-terrestrial samples nearly always exhibit massive depolarizing light scattering (DLS). This problem bears a striking resemblance to that of developing a chirality-based non-invasive glucose monitor for diabetics. Both applications require a lightweight, compact, efficient, and robust polarimeter that can operate despite significant DLS. So for astrobiological applications, we developed a polarimeter that was inspired from a polarimetry technique previously investigated for non-invasive in-vivo glucose-sensing. Our polarimeter involves continuously rotating the plane of linear polarization of a laser beam to probe a sample with DLS, and analyzing its transmission with a fixed analyzer to obtain a sinusoidal voltage signal. We lock-in detect this signal using a reference signal from an analogous set up without any sample. With milk as a scatterer, we find that this polarimeter detects chirality in the presence of three orders of magnitude more DLS than conventional polarimeters. It can accurately measure 0.1° of polarization rotation in the presence of 15% milk.

Citation Download Citation

Neeraj Kothari, Aliakbar Jafarpour, Tracey L. Thaler, Rick Trebino, and Andreas S. Bommarius "Astrobiological polarimeter", Proc. SPIE 6694, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology X, 669419 (1 October 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.736045

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