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该光谱范围内的可靠光源和探测器，红外 (IR) 技术预计在未来几年将出现巨大的经济增长。整个光子行业越来越致力于与主要外国公司以及越来越多的加拿大公司合作使用这些波长。 未来五年，通过我们的加拿大工业合作伙伴 O/E-Land Inc. 和 Few-cycle Inc. 的大力财政贡献和承诺，并在 NSERC 和 PROMPT 的支持下，我们将致力于 3 微米波长附近新兴的新型超快（皮秒到飞秒）激光技术，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，我们将使用前景广阔的掺镝 ZBLAN 光纤放大介质，增益范围为 2.8 至 3.4 微米。借助这种增益介质，我们的目标是开发一种基于光纤的脉冲激光系统，该系统将具有双波长输出和可调谐频率差，从而产生紧凑、可调谐、长波长红外（LWIR）光源，由于其灵活的使用范围，这将为最终用户提供高可用性。 对于少周期，我们将利用频域光学参量放大 (FOPA) 技术来开发一种高平均功率激光器，可提供 3 微米的高能量少周期脉冲。这项工作将利用加拿大创新基金会最近在高平均功率镱激光系统方面的重大投资。对于我们的合作伙伴来说，这是一个独特的机会，可以获取他们尚未涉及的光谱范围内的专有技术和专业知识，但由于在世界各地建立了大规模超快激光基础设施，因此带来了重大商业机会。利用 FOPA 技术，我们还将探索高场超短长波红外脉冲的生成，并与 O/E-Land 共同努力，使用经济的皮秒激光器开发紧凑而强大的红外光源。

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.