COHERENCE NEAR-INFRARED UREA BREATH TEST ANALYZER

Not Available Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), along with its development partner ITT Systems and Sciences Inc. (ITT) , proposes to develop an innovative compact and high power infrared LIDAR system for the standoff detection and discrimination of biological aerosols at ranges approaching 10 km. Our approach anticipates the use of the signal (~l.55 um) and idler (~3.45 pm) wavelengths from a solid state optical parametric oscillator (OPO) transmitter to provide a ratio of returns which is unique to biological aerosols and clearly differentiable from normal aerosol backgrounds, thereby performing the discrimination task. This approach may be extended through the use of wavelength tuning in the signal channel to detect the chemical signature of growth media which are co-distributed in the agent containing aerosol. The key innovation in the development of the LIDAR is in the configuration of the OPO cavity, which resonates on the idler and only extracts the signal on the last pass through the cavity. Consequently, the output of the device tends to follow the beam quality of the pump device -providing low divergence with good beam profile which enhances conversion efficiency. The effort also addresses key uncertainties in the magnitudes of aerosol backscatter coefficients which are key to bio-agent discrimination. BENEFITS: The anticipated result of a combined Phase I and Phase II effort is the development and delivery of a novel OPO-based LIDAR capable of discriminating bio-aerosols