All-fiber-coupled two-colour laser system for mid-infrared generation

O/E Land希望扩大其中红外光纤产品线，以覆盖分子光谱中2至25 μ m的整个“指纹区域”。中红外在安防应用中变得越来越重要。我们建议设计一种紧凑、短脉冲、完全光纤耦合的双色激光器，用于长波中红外的产生。全光纤耦合系统是一种稳定、高效、紧凑的中红外短脉冲源，可用于传感和光谱学领域。目前还没有覆盖这一光谱区域的短脉冲、紧凑、无对准的激光系统。全光纤耦合系统将基于滑铁卢大学开发的双色Yb：光纤放大器。该双色放大器已被用于在指纹区域的长波侧产生中红外。然而，滑铁卢系统不是一个全光纤系统，实际上是一个大系统，目前覆盖了一个4 × 8平方英尺的光学工作台。我们建议将该放大器系统的第一级替换为一个更简单，更紧凑和无校准的系统，该系统由啁啾光纤布拉格光栅（CFBG）和光纤耦合半导体光放大器（SOA）组成。这两种设备都将直接光纤耦合到宽带连续激光源，从而消除当前的对准问题，提供更易于使用，更高的功率稳定性，更高的耦合效率和更小的占地面积。

O/E Land is looking to expand their mid-infrared fiber product line to cover the full "fingerprint region" of 2 to 25µm for molecular spectroscopy. The mid-infrared is becoming increasingly important for security applications. We are proposing to design a compact, short pulse, completely fiber-coupled, two-colour laser for long wavelength mid-infrared generation. A completely fiber coupled system would be a stable, efficient and compact source of short-pulse mid-infrared that could be used in sensing and spectroscopy applications. Currently there are no short-pulse, compact, alignment-free laser systems covering this spectral region. The all-fiber-coupled system would be based on the two-colour Yb:fiber amplifier developed at the University of Waterloo. This two-colour amplifier has been used to generate mid-infrared in the long wavelength side of the fingerprint region. The Waterloo system is however not an all-fiber system and is in fact a large system currently covering a 4 by 8 square foot optical bench. We are proposing that the first stage of this amplifier system be replaced with a much simpler, more compact and alignment free system comprised of: a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) and a fiber-coupled semiconductor-optical-amplifier (SOA). Both devices would be directly fiber coupled to the broadband continuum laser source and thereby eliminate the current alignment issues offering greater ease of use, greater power stability, higher coupling efficiency and a much smaller footprint.