Sensor helps detect hazardous laser-light events

Sensor helps detect hazardous laser-light events

Optra Inc. (Topsfield, MA) will develop a low-cost, grating-based laser sensor to help the US military detect and record hazardous laser-light events under a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the Department of the Navy. The self-powered, hand-held device will use a diffraction grating, a charge-coupled-device array, a fast photodiode, and signal-processing electronics to extract and record laser power, wavelength, pulse length and repetition frequency, and event duration. With its wide, two-dimensional field of coverage, the sensor will reportedly be able to distinguish between multiple locations and multiple wavelength sources.