Harvard College

John M Doyle

David Patterson

David S Patterson

An apparatus for spectroscopy of a gas mixture is described. Such an apparatus includes a gas mixing system configured to mix a hot analyte gas that includes at least one analyte species in a gas phase into a cold buffer gas, thereby forming a supersaturated mixture to be provided for spectroscopic analysis.

Buffer gas cooling and mixture analysis

A spectrometer includes: (1) a housing defining a volume into which an analyte gas is introduced, the analyte gas including a chiral component; (2) a microwave generator coupled to the housing and configured to apply a microwave pulse to the analyte gas, the microwave pulse being polarized along a first direction; (3) an electric field generator coupled to the housing and configured to apply a switched electric field to the analyte gas, the electric field being oriented along a second direction different from the first direction; (4) a phase-sensitive microwave detector coupled to the housing and configured to detect an induced microwave emitted by the analyte gas, the induced microwave being polarized along a third direction different from the first direction and the second direction; and (5) an analyzer coupled to the phase-sensitive microwave detector and configured to detect an enantiomer of the chiral component based on a phase of the induced microwave.

Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy for enantiomer-specific detection of chiral molecules

A system includes a cold cell tube configured to receive a mixture of a target gas and a buffer gas to cool the target gas to a temperature at which a partial pressure of the target gas is greater than the saturated vapor pressure of the target gas while maintaining at least a portion of the target gas in the gas phase. The system also includes a spectroscopic module configured to detect the cooled target gas in the cold cell tube; and an analysis module configured to determine a characteristic of the target gas based on the results of the detecting.

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Belmont, MA, United States of America

John M Doyle