Widely Tunable Semiconductor Laser at 1650nm for Greenhouse Gas LIDAR Detection

Methane is about 23 times more potent at trapping infrared radiation than carbon dioxide. The development of low-cost, accurate remote methane sensing technologies is becoming increasingly critical with the need to accurately analyze methane concentrations and distributions throughout the atmosphere. A "Laser Sounder" method is successfully used for carbon dioxide detection, and it utilizes a commercial, telecom grade tunable laser. In this program, we propose to develop a 1651 nm widely tunable laser, which will be based on wavelength scaling of our commercial, rad-hard tunable laser platform, currently available at 1300nm and 1550nm. This laser will allow the same LIDAR technique to be applied to Methane. More »