This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the general area of instrumentation development in the subfield of infrared spectrometry. The most widely used instrument for infrared spectral analysis is the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer. When applied to non-repetitive samples this instrument has limited time resolution. Dr. Solomon will use a different transform, a wavelet transform, for the IR interferograms, to considerably improve the time resolution, and at the same time to present the results in readily usable form. With no change in hardware, a wavelet transform will improve the time resolution by a factor of 8, for a given spectral resolution. With different hardware there is a potential for further improvement. The wavelet transform method, implemented by hardware additions to the standard FT-IR instrument, plus software, would be marketed as an option to the standard instrument.
