STTR Phase I: A Novel Tunable Dye Laser for Optical Sensing

这项小型企业技术转移(STTR)第一阶段研究项目提出了一种用于光学传感的可调谐染料激光器，该激光器基于创新的染料掺杂全息聚合物分散液晶(HPDLC)技术。在第一阶段的研究中，染料掺杂HPDLC的可调谐激光的演示是主要的焦点。通过对液晶、可聚合单体、发射极染料等材料的精心选择和全息写入工艺的优化，形成了一维光子带隙材料，染料掺杂HPDLC中的无镜激光发生在反射带边缘。外加电压可调谐HPDLC的反射峰和发射激光的中心波长。整个激光装置是固态的，没有运动部件，具有很高的抗冲击和振动能力。由于创新的激光装置是基于薄膜技术，所以没有庞大的激光腔体。HPDLC薄膜的制造单位成本较低，因为易于实现大规模制造，因此在染料使用寿命结束时丢弃并更换HPDLC薄膜器件是经济的。这种创新的可调谐激光器将在高光谱医学成像和生物成像等领域的光学传感中得到应用，在这些领域中，不同的颜色将组织、细胞核、细胞质等不同区域的生化组成发送信号。此外，这种激光器可以用于制造廉价的、或许是一次性的拉曼传感器和成像器，用于生物、医疗和化学传感市场。当需要波长敏捷性时，所提出的可调谐激光器在激光雷达、大气传感和行星探测中特别有用。一个具体的应用是在轨激光雷达系统，例如测绘行星表面，因为它具有体积小、重量轻和抗冲击/振动的巨大优势。这种小型激光器可以用在表面漫游车上，从而实现表面拉曼光谱和激光雷达测绘。此外，这种创新的可调谐激光器将带来高质量激光显示的巨大改进，具有高色纯度和高光强的优点。它在波分复用(WDM)等光通信中作为可调信号源的作用是另一个商业应用。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project proposes a tunable dye laser for optical sensing based on the innovative dye-doped Holographic Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals (HPDLC) technology. The demonstration of the tunable lasing of dye-doped HPDLC is the main focus during the Phase I research. By carefully choosing the materials including liquid crystal, polymerizable monomer, emitter dye and optimizing the holographic-writing process, dye-doped HPDLC is formed as an one-dimensional photonic bandgap material, mirrorless lasing in the dye-doped HPDLC occurs at the reflection band edges. Applied voltage tunes the reflection peak of the HPDLC as well as the center wavelength of emitting laser. The whole laser device is solid state and highly resistant to shock and vibration as it has no moving parts. Since the innovative laser device is based on the thin film technology, there is no bulky laser cavity. The manufacturing unit cost of the HPDLC thin film can low due to easy-to-achieve large scale manufacturing that it is economical to throw away and replace a HPDLC thin film device once the dye reaches the end of its life. This innovative tunable laser will have applications in optical sensing in areas such as hyper-spectral medical imaging and bio-imaging where different color signals the biochemical makeup of different regions of tissue, nuclei, cytoplasm, etc. Additionally this laser can be used to create inexpensive and perhaps disposable Raman sensors and imagers for use in the biological, medical and chemical sensing markets. The proposed tunable laser is especially useful in LIDAR, atmospheric sensing and planetary exploration when wavelength agility is required. One specific application is for on-orbit LIDAR systems, for example mapping planetary surfaces because of its great advantage of small size, low weight and shock/vibration resistance. Such a small laser could be used on surface rovers enabling surface Raman spectroscopy and LADAR mapping. In addition, this innovative tunable laser will bring a great improvement in high quality laser display with merits of high color purity and high light intensity. Its role as a tunable signal source in optical communication such as Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is another commercial application.