Characteristics of direct detection 1.6μm CO2 DIAL with OPG transmitter

Abstract:

In recent years, there have been significant advances in a QPM nonlinear optical frequency conversion efficienfy. The QPM condition is produced to use periodically poled ferroelectric crystals. An optical parametric oscillator (OPO), amplifier (OPA), and generator (OPG) devices are widely recognized as versatile coherent tunable spectroscopic sources. Many applications of PPLN-parametric radiation sources, such as laser remote sensing and molecular spectroscopy, require broadly tunable and narrow linewidth operation in the infrared region. We developed an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) transmitter for the first 1.6 μm CO₂ DIAL. In order to improve the measurement accuracy of CO₂ profiles, development of high power and wavelength stabilized laser system has been conducted. We have developed a new high-power 1.6 μm laser transmitter based on a parametric master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) system pumped by a LD-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser which has the injection seed laser locked to the iodine absorption line. The master oscillator is the OPG transmitter and the amplifier is the OPA transmitter. Since the OPO transmitter has a cavity mirror, running the system without mode hopping requires complex control of cavity length. By contrast, the OPG transmitter has no cavity mirror, so there is no need to control cavity length. We report detail characteristics of the direct detection 1.6 μm CO₂ DIAL with the OPG transmitter. Moreover, we report the technique of the simultaneously measurement temperature profiles with the CO₂ concentration profiles using a CO₂ absorption profile because of improvement of measurement accuracy of the CO₂ concentration.

This work was financially supported by the System Development Program for Advanced Measurement and Analysis of the Japan Science and Technology Agency.