Part 1: Why Quantum Cascade Lasers Very Well May Save Your Life In The Future
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Unisplash — Tobias Cornille
When I first heard about Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL), and probably like all of you, I thought it was what the light sabers were made of. Well, maybe, though it has a few very cool uses outside of that.
How:
Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) can help diagnose asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes (non-invasive blood glucose monitoring), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
QCLs can detect gas species such as CO, CO2, NH3, CH4, NOX, SO2, and many more. A spectroscopic scan can detect these molecules on material or in the air with blinding accuracy. It can even detect the blood glucose level by using the quantum cascade laser light source.
What:
BLOCK engineering team designed an award-winning QCL-based Detection System named LaserWarn that can detect chemical threats in real-time and distinguish them between targeted chemicals and background interferants. LaserWarn detects very harmful gases from more than 300 meters away (~ 3.5 football fields) in less than five seconds³. Yeah, crazy.
Fun fact:
During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, QCL was used to study the air quality for measuring specific gases like CO2 and Ammonia.
In 1994, the Bell Labs team showed us the significance of Quantum Cascade Lasers. Yeah, telecommunication isn't the only thing they are known for.
Since then, the technology has exploded 💣. QCLs are the first room-temperature electronically driven semiconductor laser source that can be designed for wavelengths from a few microns to ones ranging well above 10 um, to the terahertz region¹ (1 Thz = 300 μm). It can robustly and reliably detect gas molecules between the 800 to 3,000 nm range, which is a considerable step up¹.
Before I explain the magic separating QCLs from conventional laser diodes — let me preface this to help simplify it.