I-Corps: Infrared Lidar System

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to reduce or eliminate damage/loss of property and protect public health and safety by introducing infrared and eye-safe laser radar (lidar) technology for high sensitivity remote plume characterization. The technology has the potential to meet a diverse range of customer sectors for such applications including: early detection of wildfires; tracking pesticides drift in agricultural settings; tracking dispersion and transport of air toxins and pollutants in civilian and military settings; and detecting emissions and leaks in industrial settings. Lidar has already successfully penetrated a range of markets including range finders, speed monitors, 3D imaging and surveying systems, cloud ceiling height measurement at airports and weather centers, and most recently for remote wind measurements in wind energy applications. Successful introduction of laser radar systems to new markets can have significant economic, safety and health impacts.This I-Corps project capitalizes on compact eye-safe infrared lidar technology developed for remote characterization of atmospheric aerosols or target trace gases with high sensitivity. The systems utilize robust infrared laser transmitters such as semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, or quantum cascade lasers, operating at eye-safe levels, and yet achieving high detection sensitivities. Because these sources are invisible to the human eye, they do not interfere with operators of machinery or aircraft and can be broadly deployed. The systems are built on a rigid carbon fiber platform to add to their robustness in a broad range of ambient temperatures. The lasers operate in the pulsed mode with pulse duration in the nanosecond range and at high pulse repetition rates to tens of kilohertz. The lidar receiver section employs state-of-the-art infrared detectors together with hardware and software signal processing to achieve required performance levels.