Novel approaches for the generation and amplification of ultrashort infrared and long wavelength infrared laser sources

鉴于重大科学项目以及工业和医疗应用需要这种光谱范围内的可靠光源和探测器，红外(IR)技术在未来几年有望实现巨大的经济增长。整个光电子行业越来越致力于与主要的外国公司以及越来越多的加拿大公司一起访问这些波长。在接下来的五年里，通过我们的加拿大工业合作伙伴O/E-Land Inc.和Low-Cycle Inc.的大力资助和承诺，以及在NSERC和Prompt的支持下，我们将致力于新兴的新型超快(皮秒到飞秒)激光技术，接近3微米波长，以及使用差频产生(DFG)达到更长的波长。更具体地说，在O/E-LAND中，我们将使用有前景的掺镝ZBLAN光纤放大介质，其增益范围在2.8到3.4微米之间。有了这种增益介质，我们的目标是出现一种基于光纤的脉冲激光系统，它将具有双波长输出和可调频差，由此将产生紧凑、可调、长波长的红外(LWIR)光源，由于其灵活的使用范围，将对最终用户具有高可用性。我们将利用频域光学参数放大(FOPA)技术，在少周期的情况下，研制出一种高平均功率的3微米高能量短周期脉冲激光器。这一努力将利用加拿大创新基金会最近在高平均功率Yb激光系统方面的重大投资。对于我们的合作伙伴来说，这是一个在他们尚未解决的光谱范围内获得技术诀窍和专业知识的独特机会，但由于在世界各地建立了大规模的超快激光基础设施，这带来了重大的商业机会。利用FOPA技术，我们还将探索产生高场超短LWIR脉冲，以及与O/E-land共同努力，使用经济实惠的皮秒激光开发紧凑型和坚固的红外源。

Tremendous economic growth is expected in the upcoming years for infrared (IR) technologies in view of the fact that major scientific projects as well as industrial and medical applications require reliable light sources and detectors in this spectral range. The entire photonic industry is more and more dedicated to access these wavelengths with major foreign companies as well as a growing number of Canadian based companies. Over the next five years, through the strong financial contributions and commitments of our Canadian industrial partners O/E-Land Inc. and few-cycle Inc., and with the support of NSERC and PROMPT, we will work on emerging novel ultrafast (picosecond to femtosecond) laser technologies in the vicinity of 3 microns wavelengths, as well as to reach longer wavelengths using difference frequency generation (DFG). More specifically, with O/E-Land, we will use the promising amplification medium of dysprosium doped ZBLAN fiber with a gain ranging from 2.8 to 3.4 microns. With this gain medium, our goal is to emerge a fiber-based pulsed laser system that will have a dual-wavelength output and a tunable frequency difference, from which a compact, tunable, long wavelength infrared (LWIR) light source will be generated, which will be of high usability to end-users due to its flexible range of use. With few-cycle, we will exploit the Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplification (FOPA) technique, to develop a high average power laser delivering high energy few-cycle pulses at 3 microns. This effort will capitalize on recent major investments from the Canada Foundation for Innovation in high average power Ytterbium laser systems. For our partner, this represents a unique opportunity to acquire knowhow and expertise within a spectral range that they have not yet addressed, but that bears major commercial opportunities due to the establishment of large scale ultrafast laser infrastructures around the world. Using the FOPA technology, we will also explore the generation of high-field ultrashort LWIR pulses, as well as a joint effort with O/E-Land to develop a compact and robust IR source using an economic picosecond laser.