Tm:fiber-based Solid State Active Sensor

Advances in diode-pumped solid state lasers and high-quality nonlinear materials have facilitated development of broadly tunable, all-solid-state, mid- and long-band infrared sources suitable for countermeasures and long-range sensing of targets and threats. Present systems are based on bulk-crystal pump lasers, either 1064-nm wavelength neodymium-doped or 2000-nm-region, holmium- or thulium-doped lasers, combined with suitable nonlinear wavelength converters, such as optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). Recent advances in high-power fiber lasers suggest that they can replace the bulk devices as pump sources, with the advantages of reduced sensitivity to environmental changes, simplified thermal management and greater packaging flexibility. In a related area, the same large-core fiber designs used in the lasers can provide a robust means to deliver pump power to different locations in the platform of interest. We propose to design and develop an innovative, efficient, IR-generation system that combines a flexible waveform/wavelength generator, an efficient, fiber-based power amplifier, a fiber delivery system and a fiber-coupled OPO. BENEFIT: The system design, with all the elements optically connected via rugged, low-loss, fiber, allows for maximum flexibility in deployment on different platforms, as well as allowing modular service of the components. Potential commercial applications include fence-line monitors at industrial sites, needed to meet Clean Air Act requirements and process-control monitors designed to detect and quantify small quantities of gases crucial to a particular chemical process.