Diode-oscillator fiber-amplifier systems: versatile, high power spectro-temporal control

Widely and rapidly wavelength tunable near-infrared laser sources are of importance for a variety of applications such as Fourier domain optical coherence tomography, optical frequency domain reflectometry and fiber grating array monitors, but also for applications involving optical pumping of gases. Of particular interest is to make such wide and rapid wavelength tuning available in the mid-infrared molecular fingerprint region, where carbon-hydrogen molecules show highly specific and strong vibrational resonances. A promising way to achieve this goal is the efficient non-linear downconversion of the named near-infrared sources with singly resonant optical parametric oscillators (SROs).