Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF

Aquarius - Broadband tunable QCL-based sensor for online and inline detection of contaminants in water

»Aquarius« will provide an on- and inline capable mid-IR sensing solution to meet legal provisions for industrial waste water and drinking water monitoring. Significant enhancement in sensitivity will be achieved by further advancement of the laser source,- a fast, minituarized external cavity quantum cascade laser provided by FhG-IAF and IPMS – and the detector as well as an innovative combination of sample extraction and preparation with polymer functionalized waveguides. The sensing solution will be developed along the entire value chain towards integration in industrially proven online devices for water control driven by strong industrial commitment in this consortium.

PROJECT TITLE

Aquarius − Broadband tunable QCL-based sensor for online and inline detection of contaminants in water

PROJECT DURATION

2017 − 2020

FUNDING SOURCE

European Union

COORDINATOR

Quantared Technologies GmbH, Austria

OBJECTIVES

Enhancement of broadband tunable quantum cascade lasers in terms of spectral coverage and noise
Realisation of a fully functional spectrometer sub-system consisting of a μEC-QCL and a fast MCT detector including data acquisition
Advance oil-in-water monitoring capabilities from offline (state-of-the-art) to online
Test of the online oil-in-water system at industrial end users
Realisation of integrated optical circuits (IOCs) for waveguide-based sensing and inline capable sensing configuration
Assembly and test of the inline oil-in-water system in a laboratory environment

Further information

The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 731465

Project website

You can find more information about the project on the project's official website.

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