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REMOTE MICROSCOPY, NANOSCOPY AND PICOSCOPY BY HYPERSPECTRAL LIDAR

Project description

Advanced approach expands lidar range and sensitivity to uncover hidden biological details

Lidar technology is a powerful tool for measuring and mapping environments, but its current capabilities are limited in capturing detailed biological interactions and phenomena. The ERC-funded HyperSense project plans to develop advanced hyperspectral lidars to explore exotic spectral regions. Using a patented Scheimpflug method (an optical technique ensuring sharp focus on a tilted surface), HyperSense should help enhance spectral bands, spatiotemporal resolution and sensitivity to uncover previously hidden details of our biosphere. From profiling plankton biodiversity to analysing insect breath patterns and plant nanostructures, four groundbreaking lidars will address eight key biological challenges. This innovation paves the way for compact, portable and cost-effective systems that can revolutionise biomonitoring, transforming how we study life at micro- nano- and picoscopic scales.

Objective

HyperSense will spearhead hyperspectral lidars expanded to exotic spectral regions outside the imaginable by lidar community, and demonstrate stand-off biosensing beyond what can be resolved by existing methods by employing plasma and supercontinuum light sources. Leveraging my patented hyperspectral Scheimpflug lidar concept, adding an uncontested number of spectral bands, spatio-temporal resolution and sensitivity, We will reveal aspects of our biosphere inaccessible by existing lidars. Active remote sensing of our biosphere uncovers details that cannot be resolved in space and time by sunlight, e.g. protein absorbance shielded by the ozone layer, life in dark ocean depths, narrow oxygen lines in a breath or nocturnal movements of disease vectors. Lidar constitute an efficient measurement technique where the same light transilluminates a volume until it interacts with the sample and simultaneously reports range and backscatter quantitatively, whereas hyperspectral lidar also provide microscopic absorption pathlengths, nano-features on biological surfaces, and deformations of electron shells on the picometer scale.
HyperSense will explode multiple boundaries of current lidar, demonstrate and revolutionize biomonitoring, by my inexpensive, robust, compact and portable Scheimpflug method. HyperSense comprise 4 novel hyperspectral lidars with short, long, narrow and broad spectral coverage, applied to 8 biological challenges, showcasing light-biology interactions on the micro, nano and picoscopic level:
A) DUV lidar (220-440 nm) Biomolecules specificity for classification of pollen and lichen
B) Aquatic lidar (400-800 nm) Profile plankton biodiversity using both oscillatory and spectral properties
C) Hires NIR lidar (760-762 nm) Resolving O2 and temperature in breath to understand host seeking and hill-topping in insects
D) SWIR lidar (900-2500 nm) Quantify the surface nanostructures, internal tissue microstructure and molecular composition of vegetation and aerofauna

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG

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Host institution

LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution
€ 2 597 500,00
Address
Paradisgatan 5c
22100 Lund
Sweden
Region
Södra Sverige Sydsverige Skåne län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 2 597 500,00

Beneficiaries (1)