High-sensitivity coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering – SENSICARS

The SENSICARS project aims to exploit the ultimate Raman signal enhancement (of the order of 10^14-10^30) offered by associating both surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) techniques, namely surface-enhanced CARS (SECARS), which is the most promising enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensing technique. To achieve this ambitious objective, we will develop a dedicated dual-output laser source (“CARS source”) and novel optical fibers (“optofluidic fibers”) functionalized by plasmonic nanoparticles, for realizing a new kind of analysis platform of biochemical compounds in fluids or gases, with high specificity, sensitivity and minimal sample preparation. In the end, we envision to develop a SECARS demonstrator unit with optofluidic-fiber probes (as a consumable) that can be fiber-connected for ease-of-use by an operator with real translation compatibility to both medical and chemical industry.