Towards LED-pumped Masers: a new class of room-temperature masers

“脉泽”(通过辐射的受激发射进行微波放大)是能够放大和检测极弱电磁信号的设备。潜在的应用包括电子顺磁共振(EPR)光谱学的更灵敏的变体、磁共振身体扫描仪、深空电信、基于自旋的量子计算机的读出方案，以及在微波和无线电频率上的“量子光学”的实施。我们以前对脉泽的研究表明，使用固体材料和激光/灯泵浦的脉冲和连续波(CW)在室温下工作。一个关键的研究挑战是用更坚固和低成本的系统取代泵浦激光器。在许多应用中，由于缺乏更好的光源，所以选择了激光光源。由于其低亮度，LED不容易适应泵浦脉泽。然而，LED泵浦发光聚光器(LED-LC)非常适合这一目的，特别是功能强大的稀土基LED-LCS，为高亮度技术提供了新的途径。LED-LCS是一种新型光源，它的亮度填补了经典非相干源和激光光源之间的空白。这项提议的重点是利用发光聚光灯技术开发在室温下工作的LED泵浦脉泽--这样的脉泽迄今还没有实现。这些脉泽将是低成本、安全、低维护并允许简单制造的。这项研究将开发世界上第一个LED-LC泵浦脉泽。LED泵浦LCS的一项重要资产是能量扩展和大规模集体操作，确保了长寿命、稳定性和坚固性。基于LED的亮度增强型光源也将成为基础科学(了解亮度、亮度、光浓度等)以及科学、医学/医疗保健(医学内窥镜、皮肤病)和工业(RGB投影、3D检查)中其他明亮照明和激发应用的新工具。由于其实现的复杂性，脉泽仅用于少数专业应用，特别是用于射电天文和空间通信的原子钟和低噪声放大器。这种新的方法和研究将使脉泽变得更广泛地可用，并开辟新的应用领域，如机场安全扫描、量子计算机、医学成像，并可能在改进传感器以远程探测炸弹方面发挥关键作用。这项工作将帮助英国在低成本的室温脉泽和发光聚光灯技术方面具有国际竞争力，影响世界领先的集团。此外，这项研究将带来新的想法(即知识产权)，这将在几年内在英国和世界范围内带来经济和社会效益。

"MASERs" (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are devices that can amplify and detect extremely weak electromagnetic signals. Potential applications include more sensitive variants of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, magnetic resonance body scanners, deep-space telecommunications, read-out schemes for spin-based quantum computers, and embodiments of "quantum optics" at microwave and radio frequencies. Our previous research on masers demonstrates room-temperature operation in pulsed and continuous wave (CW) using solid-state materials and laser/lamp pumping. A key research challenge is to replace the pump laser with a more rugged and low-cost system. in many applications laser sources have been chosen for lack of better. Due to their low brightness, LEDs are not adapted easily to pump masers. However, LED-pumped luminescent concentrators (LED-LC) are perfect for this purpose, especially the powerful rare-earth-based LED-LCs, offering new ways of high brightness technology. LED-LCs are new sources whose brightness fills the gap between the classical incoherent sources and the laser sources. This proposal focuses on developing LED-pumped masers working at room temperature using luminescent concentrator light technology- such a maser has not been realised to date. These masers will be low-cost, safe, low maintenance and allow simple fabrication. The research will develop the world's first LED-LC pumped masers. A significant asset of LED-pumped LCs is energy scaling and massive collective operation, assuring a long lifetime, stability, and robustness. The LED-based brightness-enhanced light source would also be a profoundly enabling new tool for basic science (understanding luminance, brightness, light concentration, etc) and other bright illumination and excitation applications in scientific, medicine/healthcare (medical endoscopy, dermatology) and industry (RGB projection, 3D inspection). Because of their complexity in implementation, the masers are used in only a few specialised applications, notably atomic clocks and low-noise amplifiers for radio astronomy and space communications. This new approach and research will enable masers to become more widely available for use and open new application areas such as airport security scanning, quantum computers, medical imaging and potentially in a key role of improving sensors to remote-detect bombs. This work will help the UK become internationally competitive in low-cost room-temperature masers and luminescent concentrator light technology, impacting world-leading groups. In addition, the research will lead to new ideas (i.e., intellectual properties), which will provide economic and societal benefits within a few years in the UK as well as worldwide.