"We've demonstrated a way of building spectrometers that are far more miniature than what is typically used today," said Ethan Minot, a professor of physics at the OSU College of Science.
The new device could fit on the "end of a human hair," Minot explained, making it far better than traditional spectrometers that require bulky optical and mechanical components."Our spectrometer does not require assembling separate optical and mechanical components or array designs to disperse and filter light," said Hoon Hahn Yoon, from Aalto University, who led the study.
When it comes to the colors of light it can absorb, the device is 100 percent electrically controllable, making it scalable and suited for widespread use, the researchers explained."Integrating it directly into portable devices such as smartphones and drones could advance our daily lives," Yoon said. "Imagine that the next generation of our smartphone cameras could be hyperspectral cameras.
For environmental monitoring case uses, spectrometers have the capacity to detect exactly what kind of pollution is in the air, water or ground, and how much of it is there.