An optomechanical switching device, a control system, and a graphical user interface for a photopolarimetric lidar standoff detection that employs differential-absorption Mueller matrix spectroscopy. An output train of alternate continuous-wave CO2 laser beams [ . . . L1:L2 . . . ] is directed onto a suspect chemical-biological (CB) aerosol plume or the land mass it contaminates (S) vis-à-vis the OSD, with L1 [L2] tuned on [detuned off] a resonant molecular absorption moiety of CB analyte. Both incident beams and their backscattered radiances from S are polarization-modulated synchronously so as to produce gated temporal voltage waveforms (scattergrams) recorded on a focus at the receiver end of a sensor (lidar) system. All 16 elements of the Mueller matrix (Mij) of S are measured via digital or analog filtration of constituent frequency components in these running scattergram data streams (phase-sensitive detection). A collective set of normalized elements {ΔMi,j} (ratio to M11) susceptible to analyte, probed on-then-off its molecular absorption band, form a unique detection domain that is scrutinized; i.e., any mapping onto this domain by incoming lidar data—by means of a trained neural network pattern recognition system for instance—cues a standoff detection event.