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LED pumped polymer laser sensor for explosives
Author(s) -
Wang Yue,
Morawska Paulina O.,
Kanibolotsky Alexander L.,
Skabara Peter J.,
Turnbull Graham A.,
Samuel Ifor D. W.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201300072
Subject(s) - explosive material , materials science , laser , optoelectronics , diode , optics , excitation , beam (structure) , perpendicular , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics
A very compact explosive vapor sensor is demonstrated based on a distributed feedback polymer laser pumped by a commercial InGaN light‐emitting diode. The laser shows a two‐stage turn on of the laser emission, for pulsed drive currents above 15.7 A. The ‘double‐threshold’ phenomenon is attributed to the slow rise of the ∼30 ns duration LED pump pulses. The laser emits a 533 nm pulsed output beam of ∼10 ns duration perpendicular to the polymer film. When exposed to nitroaromatic model explosive vapors at ∼8 ppb concentration, the laser shows a 46% change in the surface‐emitted output under optimized LED excitation.