Tunable infrared radiation for atmospheric profiling

An optical parametric amplifier has been developed to generate tunable 1570 nm radiation from a 1064 nm pump at high efficiency. A micropulse Nd:YAG with two amplifiers generating an average power of 2 watts (10 kHz) is used to pump a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal injection seeded by two CW distributed feedback lasers: one at 1570.824 nm and the second at 1570.973 nm. A conversion efficiency of ~28% from the pump into the signal wavelength has been demonstrated. The 1-nanosecond signal has a measured time-averaged jitter of <0.3 pm.