SCOTTISH technology company M Squared Lasers has launched a research partnership with the Glasgow hub of the world’s largest applied research body, the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP).
The alliance could improve the way environmental bodies and industry monitors waste gas emissions, and is co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board.
The ‘Synoposis’ project will focus on how lasers can be used to more easily detect a broader range of potentially hazardous emissions coming from landfill sites, industrial plants and chemical processes. Broadly tunable infra-red light sources developed by M Squared will broaden the wavelengths which are currently able to identify contaminants, which absorb light at different wavelengths.
Current technology has difficulty in accessing the full range of wavelengths in the infra-red which are known to be rich in so-called molecular “fingerprints” – tell tale absorption features that can identify a variety of substances. The M Squared project could provide benefit to any organisation involved in environmental monitoring
Dr Graeme Malcolm, chief executive of M Squared Lasers, said: “At the moment, scanning for these substances is a bit like having only one radio station tuned into your stereo – we need to find what else is out there and that means increasing the range of frequencies we are able to scan.”
Image – M Squared chief executive Dr Graeme Malcolm.
