An essential part of the sensor system that requires further elaboration for technically viable point - of - care operation is the pump source . Our current demonstration relies on a bulky benchtop - type Nd : YLF laser , emitting pulses with an energy of 500 nJ at a rather low repetition rate of 20 Hz . The pulse length amounts to 20 ns , leading to a low duty cycle of 4 × 10 −7 and an accordingly low average output power , which requires a long integration interval of 2 s for the read - out camera . In a point - of - care system , this bulky solid - state laser may be replaced by a compact high - power laser diode , emitting at 520 nm with a CW output power of , e.g. 900 mW 36,37 . Under pulsed operation , these diodes could provide pump - pulse energies typically ranging from 120 to 130 nJ , which is still above the lasing threshold from 30 to 40 nJ of the current devices . Moreover , the repetition rates can be greatly increased to , e.g. to 1 kHz , such that the system could be operated at~10 times higher optical powers and hence greatly improved signal - to - noise power ratios ( SNRs ) . Note that a repetition rate of 1 kHz is still low enough to allow for relaxation of excited triplet - state dye molecules with typical lifetimes on the order of tens of microseconds 38 between subsequent pulses . It should also be noted that the design of the laser cavity and the pumping scheme could be further optimized , thereby offering even higher output powers and lower thresholds , which might eventually be compatible with pump - power levels offered by light - emitting diodes ( LEDs ) . On the receiver side , signal read - out and data analysis may rely on compact highly sensitive cameras for visible wavelengths and on compact powerful processors , both of which are readily available on the market .