Active standoff sensing: Meeting Ideal Operational Criteria with
Transcript of Active standoff sensing: Meeting Ideal Operational Criteria with
The industry has developed a model that has
resulted in multiple, diverse technologies being
considered for point, standoff and hyperspectral
applications. This is understandable considering
that no suitable laser technology exists, until
now, to enable multi-application capabilities.
Active standoff sensing: Meeting Ideal Operational Criteria with the
Appropriate Technology Leads to Broad Application ScopeJack Lovell & Neil Campbell Ph.D.
IRP Technology LLC, New Mexico www.IRPtechnology.com 505-933-9919© 2013 IRP Technology LLC. All Rights Reserved
THE STATUS QUO
Efforts to produce practical active standoff
ChemBio sensing systems have fallen short for
one principle reason:
Lack of a Suitable Laser Subcomponent.
OPERATIONAL CRITERIA OPERATIONAL CONSEQUENCES
Application diversity and the scope of
configuration planning for ChemBio
Defense both exhibit dramatic leaps
forward with this laser technology.
TECHNOLOGY CHARACTERISTICS
• Laser diode front-end + optically pumped gas low maintenance, near indefinite shelf and dynamic lifetime
system, with no need for a catalyzer.
• Laser diode front-end low voltage switching, high density energy storage, robust and reliable.
• Continuously tunable with no spectral holes between ~9μm to ~11.5μm and ~4.5μm to ~5.75μm with Second
Harmonic Generation. (See “Continuously Tunable” figure below. A simple example with no specific attempt to
optimize or utilize all options available).
• Pulsed narrow band (tunable) or broadband function.
• Output pulse waveform clean, naturally absent tail and poor partition of net pulse energy between pulse & tail
typical of current CO2 units; system bandwidth can be transform limited. (See “Pulse Waveform” figure below).
• Energy storage, switching, laser diode, solid state and CO2 gas components are all compact.
• Gas cell relatively low mass and compact, as sealed with no electrodes, catalyzer, pre-ionization structure,
high voltage feed throughs, nor close coupled pulse forming net (PFN), which implies overall compact and
robust.
• Cooling options: diffusion to flow matched to application requirements.
• Efficient output pulse generation for a significant pulse FWHM range (several ns and greater).
• Superior beam quality, not discharge pumped and volume as a phase structure evolves with thermalization
post amplification.
• Repetition rate: not subject to limitations of discharge pumped
systems.
• This CO2 approach presents with volumetric (gain medium)
extractions an order of magnitude or more greater than current
systems, thus scalable with retention of reasonable dimensions.
Ideal Criteria for Active Standoff ChemBio Sensing XXX
Current laser technology has
restricted the active standoff effort
to systems for either chemical or
biological sensing, not both.
BYPASSING CURRENT LIMITATIONS – A LASER DIODE FRONT END OPTICALLY PUMPED CO2 LASER
Continuously Tunable
Technology Consequence Tree
The current laser technologies do not meet
enough of the necessary operational criteria
to make them worthwhile contenders for
active standoff ChemBio sensing, nor offer
practically scalable and deployable solutions.
CONFIGURABILITY
The laser diode front end optically pumped CO2
laser opens the way to a practical, deployable,
unitary technology solution for
ACTIVE STANDOFF,
POINT AND
HYPERSPECTRAL
configurations.
Multi-Capability
Military, DHS, 1st Responders, EPA,
DEA and Law Enforcement, USDA, plus
non-government environmental and
agricultural applications.
How Much Will Casualty Rates & Fatalities Drop?
ChemBio Defense Planning
Metro
Defense
against air
release.
Above
street level
matrix for
localized
defense.
Subway
defense.
HVAC systems:
defense for enclosed
assets (point sensors).
Military
CROSS-INDUSTRY APPLICABILITY
Pulse Waveform
The diversity of Metro applications can be
extrapolated and extended
for the military. Scalability
allows easy configurability
to the task, whether it be
hand held hyperspectral,
man portable in the field,
base defense, aerial monitoring or any other
defensive capability the military designates.
Ubiquitous, effective systems, available in multiple
configurations and capable of almost instantaneous
alerts, increase the probability of early detection of
ChemBio agents. This will reduce the number of
people exposed to the agents. Rapid dissemination
of the threat identification leads to dramatically
improved prognoses for the victims.