Testing and adaptation of innovative flat jet technology in industrial setting to assess market potential

In this project, Dr. Alessandra Picchiotti and her team will build an improved prototype of a liquid jet system which allows to analyze liquids and samples dissolved in them using optical techniques in research facilities. 

New light sources are enabling new fields in scientific research: x-rays, synchrotron radiation and unique free-electron lasers. These light sources are accessible through large research infrastructures, and fully booked by researchers from all over the world, including industrial users, such as the pharmaceutical industry to characterize the new drugs they develop. Another emerging research field uses ultra-fast lasers in research laboratories. 

But to fully exploit these light sources, for example to see biomolecules in their native media, in many cases it is necessary to have the target molecules suspended or dissolved in liquid. The traditional flow systems employ liquid containers, so-called cuvettes, with specially crafted glass windows. But even the highest quality available cuvette decreases the quality of the signal by introducing distortions in the laser beam, and increasing noise due to scattering of the light, which grows with the fourth inverse power with the wavelength (1/λ⁴). This means that for ultraviolet and X-ray lights, the noise will cover useful small signals, thus hiding important experimental information.

As a response to the problems described before, Dr. Picchiotti and colleagues have developed a windowless closed-loop pump-driven flow-jet (WGJ), to study any fast chemical and biological process, without introducing any chirp in the laser beam, decreasing substantially the problem of the scattering, and permitting a fast recirculation of the sample for stable and long-term spectroscopic experiments of liquid samples. It provides control over the thickness, the flatness, and the optical quality of the sheet of liquid, which are extremely important factors for the spectroscopic applications of this technology.

At the moment there are at least 8 active prototypes of her WGJ, all still working after years of being built, with a stable performance of many hours to a few days in one single running experiment.

Extrapolating from the past experience, the researchers reaching to Picchiotti, and references in the literature, several dozens of academic laboratories around the world are potential targets as first customers. And, depending on the success of proof-of-principle application in vacuum, the market can be expanded further to other academic contexts. 

In this project, Dr. Picchiotti and Salome Elbakidze, with the external collaboration of Prof. Dr. Michael Rübhausen and Dr. Benjamin Grimm-Lebsanft, will build an improved prototype, demonstrate its use in vacuum, and start developing a business concept. Once they learn what is needed to transfer the technology and commercialize it, they are able to set up a business plan, including potentially the founding of a startup driven by the WGJ technology. Market analysis, building a prototype for demonstrative uses, and proof-of-principle applications are the envisioned steps to transfer this technology from academia to the industrial context.