Sep 9 2008
Daylight Solutions, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced molecular detection and imaging solutions, today announced that it has established a new world record for a broadly tunable solid state mid-infrared laser source in a commercial product. The company integrated a Quantum Cascade semiconductor gain chip from ALPES lasers (Switzerland) into its own patented tunable external-cavity laser (EC-QCL) system. The result was a single frequency source that tuned across 275 wavenumbers, or 24% of the laser's center wavelength at 8.8µm.
The availability of miniature, broadly tunable lasers in the 4µm to 12µm spectrum enables hand held sensors, which can be used in applications such as medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and explosives detection. The ability to tune across a wide spectral range means that more of a molecule's "fingerprint" can be identified, allowing for greater accuracy and the ability to detect multiple species of molecules simultaneously.
"This is a significant step in the field of molecular detection and sensing," said Paul Larson, Daylight's President and COO. "For example, this extreme tunability allows us to use a single, miniature laser source to scan across the entire spectrum of glucose, making non-invasive glucose monitoring that much closer to a commercial reality."
"This achievement from Daylight Solutions greatly simplifies spectroscopic research in the mid- infrared, and will lead directly to new and important applications in a variety of fields," said Rice University Professor Frank Tittel, one of the world's leading experts in laser based mid-infrared spectroscopy.
Daylight Solutions will offer extreme tunability as part of its current line of broadly tunable and fixed wavelength laser products and sensor systems.