Brighter than a synchrotron: mid-infrared sources for spectroscopy & sensing

Mid-Infrared spectroscopy allows a light beam to determine the chemical composition of objects or gaseoussamples. Mid-infrared spectroscopy could be a powerful diagnostic tool in many fields such as medicine,agriculture, the environment, national security and industrial process control. Its use has been hampered by thelack of bright, low cost sources and integrated devices. This project will break this nexus and unleash the fullcapabilities of mid-infrared spectroscopy by implementing new Australian-made sources that exceed the brightness of even synchrotrons at modest prices. It will also demonstrate a single chip integrated version of sucha source as the first step towards enabling ubiquitous deployment of Mid-Infrared technology.