Handheld UV Laser

Boston University Researchers Awarded $1.5 Million to Develop Handheld UV Laser
CompoundSemi News Staff
CompoundSemi Online - The Original Compound Semiconductor Industry Newspaper

February 14, 2011...Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE) of Boston University has received a $1.5 million, two-year subcontract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to use molecular beam epitaxy of aluminum gallium nitride to help develop a handheld, electron-beam pumped ultraviolet semiconductor laser. The laser would reportedly be the first handheld device that would be the could operate within the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Its ultra-low emission wavelength and compact size allows such a laser to be employed for a range of defense and commercial applications, including: non-line-of-sight communication in dense urban areas and other military theaters, identification of biological and chemical substances used in potential terror attacks via airborne particles, and point-of-care chemical analyses of blood and other bodily fluids.

The ECE research team will produce the core laser material, aluminum gallium nitride, and then construct component devices from multiple layers of the material. The researchers will evaluate the materials by directing electron beams at them in the lab.

Applied Physics Technologies and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will design miniature electron guns to pump the laser, and Photon Systems, Inc., the prime contractor, will integrate everything into a prototype sized below one cubic inch.

This is one team that is a part of a very large DARPA program aimed at mid-UV light emitters. Here's a preliminary announcement of that program: Semiconductor Today


This is a big program with multiple contracts going to several different organizations, for both UV LEDs and UV lasers. This Photon Systems team certainly has a very interesting idea of how to pump their material to get a laser, but we'll just have to wait and see or it turns out.

They're definitely thinking outside the box in several ways, I'll give them that.

Hmm.. I'm a newbie but..
I've seen UV diodes before.. link
here in LPF also. Why news for that? Any news??

The diode's in that (interesting) thread you found don't know the meaning of the word "coherent".

It is news to me, thank you!
I knew of UV lasers, but not of the handheld semiconductor type.

They are in-series Dies.. so some have voltage up to 14v input.
np anselm.

Leodahsan said:

Hmm.. I'm a newbie but..
I've seen UV diodes before.. link
here in LPF also. Why news for that? Any news??

Click to expand...

That's an LED, and it's only 365nm.

DARPA is looking lasers and LEDs, and more to the point of this thread, they're looking for lasers down to 250nm. Lasers are much harder to make.

It's a LONG way to go from 365nm to 250nm. Not even close to the same thing.

For more perspective, the first violet laser diode was made in like 1994. And the first nitride green laser diode, at 520nm, was made in 2009. It took 15 years to go from 405 to 520. DARPA's goal is to go from 365 (not the current best state of the art, but closeish) to 250nm, an equally big jump in the exact opposite direction. (As a note, there are LEDs at lower wavelengths than 365nm, and I don't recall what the lowest wavelength laser diode is at right now, but it isn't 250nm, so there's still a lot of work to do).

Thats pretty cool, did it mention what mW it was running at? Did I miss it somewhere?

How much better will they be able to burn VS 405nm?

Krogith said:

Thats pretty cool, did it mention what mW it was running at? Did I miss it somewhere?

Click to expand...

Doesn't exist yet. They're trying to make it. The news story is about one particular group that got a cut of the DARPA grant to try to develop it.

My recently resurected via major surgery immediately after receipt Wicked Lasers E3 405nM '100mW' class 3B p.o.s. 'Blue' laser pen has LOADS of UVc backscatter. Finally got it working and lit it up pointed at the ceiling in a dark room. Everything looked like it was under a blacklight. Got curious and brought in some Calcite that I know glows different colors under UVa, UVb, & UVc, and sure enough it was trying to glow. It is a DPSS 'Blue'. not sure what length IR they have pumping it, but if the major emmission is, in fact, 405nM, that would mean 810nM IR pumping a YAG freq dbblr. IR Handhelds are here!,, sort of.... UVc LEDs are nothing new, been around for years (remember Nichia?)

Oh boy... where to start? :undecided: ...

1. Meter is abbreviated m, not M. It is "nm," not "nM."

2. 405nm isn't blue, and I don't think wicked claims it is blue either.

3. It is impossible for a 405nm laser diode to emit UVC or UVB, and very unlikely to emit UVA.

4. Your calcite will glow under violet and possibly blue light as well as UV.

5. 405nm is not DPSS, it is direct-injection. (laser diode)

6. There is no IR in a violet diode's beam.

123splat said:

not sure what length IR they have pumping it, but if the major emmission is, in fact, 405nM, that would mean 810nM IR pumping a YAG freq dbblr. IR Handhelds are here!,, sort of....

Click to expand...

:crackup:

Yep, ir handheld are here! They're called ir handhelds....

I can't remember if thats the same guy that said "a 880nm diode could be doubled (halved frequency) with a YAG to 404nm (uv light)".

Hmmm... 880nm diodes... :homerdrolling:

123splat said:

My recently resurected via major surgery immediately after receipt Wicked Lasers E3 405nM '100mW' class 3B p.o.s. 'Blue' laser pen has LOADS of UVc backscatter. Finally got it working and lit it up pointed at the ceiling in a dark room. Everything looked like it was under a blacklight. Got curious and brought in some Calcite that I know glows different colors under UVa, UVb, & UVc, and sure enough it was trying to glow. It is a DPSS 'Blue'. not sure what length IR they have pumping it, but if the major emmission is, in fact, 405nM, that would mean 810nM IR pumping a YAG freq dbblr. IR Handhelds are here!,, sort of.... UVc LEDs are nothing new, been around for years (remember Nichia?)

Click to expand...

May I suggest taking a week or two off posting to do some basic reading. Honestly, I've never a paragraph with more errors. Start with the links in my sig. That will save you from putting your foot in your mouth next time you open it. Spelling counts too.

Leodahsan said:

I can't remember if thats the same guy that said "a 880nm diode could be doubled (halved frequency) with a YAG to 404nm (uv light)".

Hmmm... 880nm diodes... :homerdrolling:

Click to expand...

no no no no leo, you have it all wrong, he said 808nm doubled and halved with a yag to 440nm! and you said, where'd you get 440nm?:crackup::crackup::crackup: