Techniques for selecting a spectroscopic light source include obtaining a light source dataset and a spectroscopic dataset, initializing a genetic algorithm, selecting a first individual solution and a second individual solution from an initial generation of solutions, generating a new individual solution from the first and second individual solutions by combining their respective chromosome encodings, evaluating a specificity of the new individual solution to a target material, adding the new individual solution to a new generation of solutions, populating the new generation of solutions with a plurality of additional individual solutions, generating one or more descendent generations of solutions by iterating the genetic algorithm, selecting one or more implementation individual solutions exhibiting a threshold specificity to the target material, and outputting the one or more implementation individual solutions.