Broadband agile wavelength laser for chemical aerosol detection

Chemical agents in aerosol form have been identified as a major threat, and there is now interest in applying the long wave infrared frequency agile laser sensor to detection of this important agent form. If successful, it would be possible to perform detection of chemical agent vapors and aerosols and biological aerosol agents with a single dual-use sensor. To accomplish this, it is critical to obtain laser emission in the presently missing CO2 laser band separations, and this can be accomplished by a gas mixture of normal and C13 isotopes. The Phase I program will address the novel approaches to achieving stable output energy across all bands, catalyst effectiveness in a closed system, and wavelength tuner selectivity.