Portable mid-IR source around 3.7 μm based on temperature-tuned periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)

In this paper, mid-IR light generation based on difference frequency generation (DFG) in a single piece of PPLN is proposed and studied. In the studies, a Yb doped fiber laser at 1.092 μm and a tunable laser around 1.55 μm were used. The output mid-IR laser with the wavelength tunable around 3.7 μm was generated. Since compact Yb doped fiber lasers at 1.092 μm and tunable semiconductor laser diodes around 1.55 μm are available on the market, the proposed mid-IR laser is potentially portable. Our simulations show that tunable mid-IR light as broad as 800 nm can be obtained from a single PPLN chip simply by tuning temperature (from 30 oC to 500 oC) and signal wavelength (from 1.48 μm to 1.62 μm).

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