Compact laser spectrometer

Abstract

A compact laser spectrometer according to the present invention includes a plurality of semiconductor lasers comprising a plurality of semiconductor gain medium compositions emitting a plurality of radiation components originating from an area having a maximum transverse dimension that is smaller than a minimum feature size of a sample. A broadband optical detector detects a diffuse reflectance. In one preferred embodiment of this invention the plurality of semiconductor lasers consists of Fabry-Perot edge-emitting lasers arranged around the perimeter of a cylindrical submount with a substantially circular cross-section. The plurality of radiation components is directly coupled to a multi-mode optical fiber, which presents radiation to a sample. In another preferred embodiment a linear array of Fabry-Perot edge-emitting lasers is directly coupled to a multi-mode fiber. In still another preferred embodiment, a two-dimensional array of vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers is directly coupled to a multi-mode optical fiber.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.