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Quantum Cascade Lasers are more lightweight, reliable and smaller than current laser defense systems that are used to disrupt the guidance systems of incoming infrared seeking enemy missiles.
These are semiconductor lasers that emit in the mid to far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and can be manufactured in high production volumes.
Initially over 1,000 aircraft will be outfitted with the defense system and scaled up to over 4,000 in the immediate future....and are light enough to be deployed on unmanned drones.
I have worked with quantum cascade lasers doing IR spectroscopy and standoff explosives detection. I expect that in a few years they will be a big part of guidance systems and remote sensors. Right now, they are simply too expensive for anyone but the most well funded research groups (government labs and military) to play with.
The great thing about the QCLs we were using was that they were eye-safe. Because of the way that they are pulsed, the duty cycle is very light. In essence, the laser would only spend 1 millisecond 'on' per second, so the power of the laser was low averaged over time despite the extremely high power when emitting. High powered IR lasers are incredibly efficient at shaking up molecules and producing phonons. If you aim a very sensitive microphone onto a hard surface, shine a QCL on it, then amplify the frequency of the laser pulse with a lock-in-amplifier, you can 'hear' the echoes of the laser and do some serious photoacoustic spectroscopy. In essence, you have sonar through the air, although the tunability of the QCL means that your images are in high def color as a function of the emissivity of the objects viewed. Unlike the visible spectrum, the IR spectrum gives a lot of information about the chemical nature of organic materials.
QCL lasers in the UV-vis range would be a real game changer.
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