Quantum Cascade Laser-Based Infrared Imaging: Technologies, Advancements, and Applications

Infrared microscopy is a powerful tool for materials characterization, offering chemically specific, spatially resolved information. However, conventional high-resolution imaging is often slow, requiring hours to analyze centimeter-scale samples. Quantum cascade laser (QCL)-based infrared microscopy overcomes this limitation by combining a wavelength-tunable, high-brightness laser source with a wide-field bolometer detector, reducing acquisition times from hours to minutes. Advanced coherence reduction techniques suppress laser artifacts, delivering high-quality spectral and imaging data.

This breakthrough has enabled rapid, high-throughput infrared imaging across a wide range of applications, including tissue pathology, microplastic detection, pharmaceutical tablet analysis, surface contamination screening, and coating quality inspection. As AI-driven data acquisition and analysis continue to advance, QCL-based infrared imaging is becoming an increasingly powerful platform for fast, automated microanalysis, accelerating workflows in both research and industrial quality control.

About the presenter
Peng Wang, Ph.D., is a senior applications scientist at Bruker Optics with more than 20 years of experience in FTIR and Raman spectroscopy and microscopy. She earned her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 2005, followed by postdoctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Wang specializes in the development and application of advanced vibrational spectroscopic imaging techniques for materials characterization and life science research. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor of one U.S. patent.