Laser and environmental monitoring system
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- a) a laser operable to emit a laser beam pulse;
b) a pulse shaper operable to shape the laser beam pulse;
c) a detector operable to receive the shaped pulse and detect characteristics of an environmental agent; and
d) a controller connected to the detector and being operable to determine if the agent is harmful.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A laser and monitoring system is provided. In another aspect of the present invention, the system includes a laser, pulse shaper and detection device. A further aspect of the present invention employs a femtosecond laser and binary pulse shaping (BPS). Still another aspect of the present invention uses a laser beam pulse, a pulse shaper and a SHG crystal. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (hereinafter “MIIPS”) method is used to characterize the spectral phase of femtosecond laser pulses and to correct them. A further aspect of the system of the present invention is employed to monitor environmental chemicals and biological agents, including toxins, explosives, and diseases.
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Citations
71 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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a) a laser operable to emit a laser beam pulse;
b) a pulse shaper operable to shape the laser beam pulse;
c) a detector operable to receive the shaped pulse and detect characteristics of an environmental agent; and
d) a controller connected to the detector and being operable to determine if the agent is harmful. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An environmental monitoring system comprising:
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a femtosecond laser operable to emit a laser beam of less than about 50 femtosecond pulse duration upon an air specimen;
a pulse shaper operable to shape the laser beam pulse; and
a control system automatically varying pulse shaping performance of the pulse shaper for subsequent laser beam emissions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A monitoring system comprising:
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(a) a building including a ventilation system;
(b) a laser and detection device coupled to the ventilation system; and
(c) a controller connected to and operating the laser and detection device;
(d) the laser and detection device repetitively receiving air samples from the ventilation system and the controller determining if an undesirable agent is present; and
(e) the controller automatically enacting a countermeasure to reduce the harmfulness of the undesirable agent in the building. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A monitoring system comprising:
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(a) a security checkpoint unit located adjacent multiple movable specimens;
(b) a laser and detection device operably sensing the presence of agents on the specimens; and
(c) a controller connected to the device operably determining if the device identifies an agent of interest. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A method of operating a system comprising:
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(a) emitting a laser beam pulse at a specimen;
(b) varying the shape of the laser beam pulse;
(c) detecting a mass spectrum using the varied shape laser beam pulse;
(d) automatically generating multiple additional laser beam pulses of different shapes after steps (a)-(c);
(e) automatically and electronically analyzing the detected mass spectrum and ranking them based on closeness to a target value;
(f) repeating steps (a)-(e) to statistically improve detected values; and
(g) ranking the laser beam pulse shapes from most similar to most different. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A method of monitoring an area comprising:
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(a) monitoring specimens of the area in a repetitive manner;
(b) emitting shaped laser pulses at the specimens;
(c) comparing mass spectrums created at least in part by step (b) with mass spectrums of acceptable background chemicals; and
(d) automatically identifying harmful items based at least in part on the mass spectrum comparisons. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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Specification