Each year, the U.S. energy industry loses an estimated 3 percent of its natural gas production, valued at $1 billion in revenue, to leaky infrastructure. Escaping invisibly into the air, these methane gas plumes can now be detected, imaged, and measured using a specialized lidar flown on small aircraft.
This lidar is a product of Bridger Photonics , a leading methane-sensing company based in Bozeman, Montana. MIT Lincoln Laboratory developed the lidar's optical-power amplifier, a key component of the system, by advancing its existing slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) technology. The methane-detecting lidar is 10 to 50 times more capable than other airborne remote sensors on the market.
"This drone-capable sensor for imaging methane is a great example of Lincoln Laboratory technology at work, matched with an impactful commercial application," says Paul Juodawlkis, who pioneered the SCOWA technology with Jason Plant in the Advanced Technology Division and collaborated with Bridger Photonics to enable its commercial application.
Today, the product is being adopted widely, including by nine of the top 10 natural gas producers in the United States. "Keeping gas in the pipe is good for everyone - it helps companies bring the gas to market, improves safety, and protects the outdoors," says Pete Roos, founder and chief innovation officer at Bridger. "The challenge with methane is that you can't see it. We solved a fundamental problem with Lincoln Laboratory."
A laser source "miracle"
In 2014, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was seeking a cost-effective and precise way to detect methane leaks. Highly flammable and a potent pollutant, methane gas (the primary constituent of natural gas) moves through the country via a vast and intricate pipeline network. Bridger submitted a research proposal in response to ARPA-E's call and was awarded funding to develop a small, sensitive aerial lidar.
Aerial lidar sends laser light down to the ground and measures the light that reflects back to the sensor. Such lidar is often used for producing detailed topography maps. Bridger's idea was to merge topography mapping with gas measurements. Methane absorbs light at the infrared wavelength of 1.65 microns. Operating a laser at that wavelength could allow a lidar to sense the invisible plumes and measure leak rates.
"This laser source was one of the hardest parts to get right. It's a key element," Roos says. His team needed a laser source with specific characteristics to emit powerfully enough at a wavelength of 1.65 microns to work from useful altitudes. Roos recalled the ARPA-E program manager saying they needed a "miracle" to pull it off.
Through mutual connections, Bridger was introduced to a Lincoln Laboratory technology for optically amplifying laser signals: the SCOWA. When Bridger contacted Juodawlkis and Plant, they had been working on SCOWAs for a decade. Although they had never investigated SCOWAs at 1.65 microns, they thought that the fundamental technology could be extended to operate at that wavelength. Lincoln Laboratory received ARPA-E funding to develop 1.65-micron SCOWAs and provide prototype units to Bridger for incorporation into their gas-mapping lidar systems.
"That was the miracle we needed," Roos says.
A legacy in laser innovation
Lincoln Laboratory has long been a leader in semiconductor laser and optical emitter technology. In 1962, the laboratory was among the first to demonstrate the diode laser, which is now the most widespread laser used globally. Several spinout companies, such as Lasertron and TeraDiode, have commercialized innovations stemming from the laboratory's laser research, including those for fiber-optic telecommunications and metal-cutting applications.
In the early 2000s, Juodawlkis, Plant, and others at the laboratory recognized a need for a stable, powerful, and bright single-mode semiconductor optical amplifier, which could enhance lidar and optical communications. They developed the SCOWA (slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier) concept by extending earlier work on slab-coupled optical waveguide lasers ( SCOWLs) . The initial SCOWA was funded under the laboratory's internal technology investment portfolio, a pool of R&D funding provided by the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering to seed new technology ideas. These ideas often mature into sponsored programs or lead to commercialized technology.
"Soon, we developed a semiconductor optical amplifier that was 10 times better than anything that had ever been demonstrated before," Plant says. Like other semiconductor optical amplifiers, the SCOWA guides laser light through semiconductor material. This process increases optical power as the laser light interacts with electrons, causing them to shed photons at the same wavelength as the input laser. The SCOWA's unique light-guiding design enables it to reach much higher output powers , creating a powerful and efficient beam. They demonstrated SCOWAs at various wavelengths and applied the technology to projects for the Department of Defense.
When Bridger Photonics reached out to Lincoln Laboratory, the most impactful application of the device yet emerged. Working iteratively through the ARPA-E funding and a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the team increased Bridger's laser power by more than tenfold. This power boost enabled them to extend the range of the lidar to elevations over 1,000 feet.
"Lincoln Laboratory had the knowledge of what goes on inside the optical amplifier - they could take our input, adjust the recipe, and make a device that worked very well for us," Roos says.
The Gas Mapping Lidar was commercially released in 2019. That same year, the product won an R&D 100 Award , recognizing it as a revolutionary advancement in the marketplace.
A technology transfer takes off
Today, the United States is the world's largest natural gas supplier , driving growth in the methane-sensing market. Bridger Photonics deploys its Gas Mapping Lidar for customers nationwide, attaching the sensor to planes and drones and pinpointing leaks across the entire supply chain, from where gas is extracted, piped through the country, and delivered to businesses and homes. Customers buy the data from these scans to efficiently locate and repair leaks in their gas infrastructure. In January 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency provided regulatory approval for the technology.
According to Bruce Niemeyer, president of Chevron's shale and tight operations, the lidar capability has been game-changing : "Our goal is simple - keep methane in the pipe. This technology helps us assure we are doing that … It can find leaks that are 10 times smaller than other commercial providers are capable of spotting."
At Lincoln Laboratory, researchers continue to innovate new devices in the national interest. The SCOWA is one of many technologies in the toolkit of the laboratory's Microsystems Prototyping Foundry, which will soon be expanded to include a new Compound Semiconductor Laboratory - Microsystem Integration Facility. Government, industry, and academia can access these facilities through government-funded projects, CRADAs, test agreements, and other mechanisms .
At the direction of the U.S. government, the laboratory is also seeking industry transfer partners for a technology that couples SCOWA with a photonic integrated circuit platform. Such a platform could advance quantum computing and sensing, among other applications.
"Lincoln Laboratory is a national resource for semiconductor optical emitter technology," Juodawlkis says.
