Infrared differential-absorption Mueller matrix spectroscopy and neural network-based data fusion for biological aerosol standoff detection

An active spectrophotopolarimeter sensor and support system were developed for a military/civilian defense feasibility study concerning the identification and standoff detection of biological aerosols. Plumes of warfare agent surrogates -irradiated Bacillus subtilis and chicken egg white albumen (analytes), Arizona road dust (terrestrial interferent), water mist (atmospheric interferent), and talcum powders (experiment controls) were dispersed inside windowless chambers and interrogated by multiple CO₂ laser beams spanning 9.1-12.0 µm wavelengths (). Molecular vibration and vibration-rotation activities by the subject analyte are fundamentally strong within this “fingerprint” middle infrared spectral region. Distinct polarization-modulations of incident irradiance and backscatter radiance of tuned beams generate the Mueller matrix (M) of subject aerosol. Strings of all 15 normalized elements {M_ij()/M₁₁()}, which completely describe physical and geometric attributes of the aerosol particles, are input fields for training hybrid Kohonen self-organizing map feed-forward artificial neural networks (ANNs). The properly trained and validated ANN model performs pattern recognition and type-classification tasks via internal mappings. A typical ANN that mathematically clusters analyte, interferent, and control aerosols with nil overlap of species is illustrated, including sensitivity analysis of performance. ©2010 Optical Society of America

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