LED pumped polymer laser sensor for explosives

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support for this research from the EPSRC HYPIX project (grant number EP/ F059922/1 and EP/F05999X/1), and the TIRAMISU project, funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 284747.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. 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.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

LED pumped polymer laser sensor for explosives

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. 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