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

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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.