A team of physics researchers at the University of Adelaide, Australia, say that they have developed a new type of laser that will enable advances in areas as diverse as breath analysis for disease diagnosis and remote sensing of critical greenhouse gases.
Published in the journal Optics Letters, the researchers from the University's Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing and School of Chemistry and Physics explain that they have been able to produce 25 times more light emission than other lasers operating at a similar wavelength, which could pave the way for detection of very low concentrations of gases.
Using a novel approach, the new laser operates in the mid-infrared frequency range, the same wavelength band where many important hydrocarbon gases absorb light. They say that this could enable a high degree of sensitivity, along with the possibility of analyzing trace gases in exhaled breath at a doctor’s office.
Research has shown that with various diseases, minute amounts of gases not normally exhaled can be detected in the breath; for example, acetone can be detected in the breath when someone has diabetes.
The new laser uses an optical fiber that is easier to work with, less bulky, and more portable, and much more cost effective to produce than other types of laser.
The researchers reported light emission at 3.6 microns, the deepest mid-infrared emission from a fiber laser operating at room temperature. They have also shown that the laser has the promise of efficient emission across a large wavelength spectrum from 3.3 to 3.8 micron.
