Next generation fibre laser pumped mid-infrared light sources

中红外（MIR）光谱区域（~3-50微米）对于医疗保健、制造业和国防领域的应用非常重要。关键的有机分子表现出强烈和独特的吸收MIR光，包括许多大气气体和复杂的蛋白质。MIR中的激光源正在彻底改变我们生活的世界，例如，可以远程监测我们城市的污染水平，或者在早期疾病诊断中准确区分癌症和健康组织。然而，与近红外（NIR）相比，在MIR中可用的可行的直接激光源要少得多。该项目旨在使用新兴的非线性材料将现有的高功率NIR光纤激光技术转换为MIR。将开发新的参数转换技术，以展示一套独特的激光源，这些激光源紧凑，高效，远远优于现有的解决方案。这些光源将与世界各地的学术和工业合作者一起部署在目标应用中。学生将积极参与近红外高功率光纤激光系统的设计、建造和测试，沿着产生MIR辐射所需的相应波长转换技术。该项目将涉及与帝国和国际合作者合作，为学生提供一个令人兴奋的跨学科研究环境。

The mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region (~3-50 micron) is immensely important for applications in healthcare, manufacturing and defence. Key organic molecules exhibit strong and unique absorption of MIR light, including many atmospheric gases and complex proteins. Laser sources in the MIR are revolutionising the world we live in, for example, enabling the remote monitoring of pollution levels in our cities or accurately differentiating cancerous and healthy tissue in early-stage disease diagnosis. However, in comparison to the near-infrared (NIR), there are far fewer viable direct laser sources available in the MIR.This project aims to use newly emerging nonlinear materials to convert established high-power NIR fibre laser technology to the MIR. Novel parametric conversion techniques will be developed, to demonstrate a set of unique laser sources that are compact, efficient and far outperform existing solutions. These sources will be deployed in target applications with academic and industrial collaborators around the world.The student will be actively involved in the design, building and testing of high power fibre laser systems in the NIR, along with the corresponding wavelength conversion techniques necessary to generate MIR radiation. The project will involve working with collaborators at Imperial and internationally, providing the student with exposure to an exciting inter-disciplinary research environment.