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.