Citation

Pushkarsky MB, Dunayevskiy IG, Prasanna M, Tsekoun AG, Go R, Patel CKN. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2006; 103(52): 19630-19634.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.0609789104

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We report high-sensitivity detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) by using laser photoacoustic spectroscopy where the laser radiation is obtained from a continuous-wave room temperature high-power quantum cascade laser in an external grating cavity geometry. The external grating cavity quantum cascade laser is continuously tunable over ≈400 nm around 7.3 μm and produces a maximum continuous-wave power of ≈200 mW. The IR spectroscopic signature of TNT is sufficiently different from that of nitroglycerine so that unambiguous detection of TNT without false positives from traces of nitroglycerine is possible. We also report the results of spectroscopy of acetylene in the 7.3-μm region to demonstrate continuous tunability of the IR source.
quantum cascade lasers high-power lasers continuous-wave operation room temperature operation TNT detection

Language: en