Development of Mid-IR Laser

Abstract

We proposed and demonstrated a mid-IR fiber laser at 1925 nm using a thulium-doped fiber as the gain medium. The designed laser needs lower pump power compared to that previously reported. The developed laser is compact and cost-effective to manufacture. We have presented the potential application of the laser in sensing gases responsible for climate change. We have developed a high-power pulsed laser at 1570 nm, which was used as the pump source for the thulium-doped fiber laser. Further, we have developed a pulsed laser at 1533 nm, which will be used as a pump source for generating a molecular gas laser using acetylene as a gain medium. We have also introduced and demonstrated for the first time the use of an aqueous solution of gold nanorods and polyvinyl alcohol as a saturable absorber to produce pulsed and tunable pulsed lasers in the mid-IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. We accomplished several important milestones, shaping future research endeavours in developing mid-IR lasers. Chapter 8 summarizes our research accomplishments.