Rapidly and Broadly Tunable High-Power Infrared Lasers for Standoff Detection Applications

In response to the Army STTR Topic A14A-T015 solicitation for tunable high-power LWIR lasers for standoff detection applications, Pranalytica proposes to develop a compact, rugged and highly reliable wavelength tunable quantum cascade laser (QCL) module delivering over 5W of peak power and over 0.5W of average power in the spectral region spanning from 7 to 11µm. The proposed approach is based on a new external cavity configuration, not used for QCLs heretofore, and offers several critical advantages, over either the QCL arrays or the traditional grating external cavity QCL, for practical field applications, including rapid wavelength tuning, high manufacturing yield, and compatibility with standard QCL packaging. Unprecedented combination of the projected operational characteristics of the module will pave the way to a new generation of standoff detection systems.