NEO Laser Labs
Involvement in research projects has always been an important part of NEOs development strategy. From the very beginning in the 1980s up until now, NEO has been partner in many national and European research projects. The results have often been directly or indirectly adapted into commercial products. Below you can read more about ongoing projects where NEO plays a crucial part.
Following developments and trends in the world of science, having early access to new technologies, and cultivate relationships with key research institutes allows NEO to maintain a global leadership in gas spectroscopy. Currently NEO acts as an industrial partner and system integrator in five European research projects. These are targeting the development of new laser-sources for a variety of spectral regions, as well as new detection schemes. This auspicious combination will open up new and exciting possibilities in gas sensing that will allow NEO to release new, revolutionary products in the future.
Entering the exciting world of NEO
Detection of gases in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region has been a focus in R&D worldwide the last couple of years. This wavelength region has a great potential in terms of new applications in the measurement industry.
Nowadays laser-based gas spectrometers in the near-infrared (NIR, 760 nm to 2300 nm) have been accepted by industrial users as the best available technology for a number of different applications. However, for some gases specifically of interest for emission and process control it is necessary to move into the mid-infrared region (MIR, 3 μm – 12 μm). This is either because the gas of interest (e.g. sulfur dioxide, SO2) has no absorption features or, in case of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the absorption strength and thus the sensitivity is too low in the NIR.
The figure below shows as an example of the absorption strength of NO. As can be seen, the absorption strength in the MIR (around 5.2μm) is about 1000 times stronger than in the NIR (around 1.8μm). Therefore, NEO has set one focus of its R&D on the investigation of MIR laser sources to be able to utilize the stronger absorption and thus increasing the sensitivity of its sensors.
The WideLase Project concerns realization of compact, rugged and cost effective laser
sources with wide tuning range for safety and security applications in the 3.3 to 7.0 μm
wavelength range. Novel Interband Cascade based laser structures with CLARITY is a
3-years research project funded under the seventh framework programme (FP7) in the
research area: ICT-2011.3.5 Core and disruptive photonic technologies. The project
envisions the development and demonstration of a set of technologies, which will
radically change the current scenery of mid-infrared (MIR) photonic systems in terms of
performance, size and cost. The technology vehicles are ultra-low noise Quantum Cascade
Laser (QCL) sources and ultra-wideband frequency converters based on silicon
nano-waveguides and microstructured soft-glass fibers. The mid-infrared (MIR) spectral
region is emerging as the preferred wavelength region for a number of applications
including free space communications, absorption spectroscopy, chemical and biological
sensing and LIDAR applications. The key elements for the different applications are the
optical source and the detector.