A Nanotech Sensor Turns Molecular Fingerprints into Bar Codes

Infrared spectroscopy is the benchmark method for detecting and analyzing organic compounds. However, that requires complicated procedures and large, expensive instruments, making device miniaturization challenging and hindering its use for some industrial and medical applications. It is also difficult to use it for data collection in the field, such as measuring pollutant concentrations. Furthermore, since it is fundamentally limited by low sensitivity, it requires large samples.