FROG-technique Covers 1800 – 2200 nm

FROG now covers the wavelength range of 1800 nm – 2200 nm and opens the door to precisely characterize pulsed laser systems emitting in the spectral region of 2 µm.

Famous representatives of pulsed laser sources to cover this wavelength region are OPOs and classical OPAs. Beside this, Thulium- (Tm) and Holmium- (Ho) doped materials enable pulsed laser emission with comparatively high pulse energies. New candidates in this field are, for example, fiber-based pico-second sources such as master oscillator power amplifiers (MOPA) or crystal-based regenerative amplifier systems with Holmium:YAG and Thulium:YAP operating in the femto-second regime.

Those laser systems have attracted a lot of interest in spectroscopy, detection, surgery, and material processing. This is based on the fact that strong water absorption occurs at 2 µm and around this wavelength. Due to the strong water absorption and therefore lower penetration depth in biological tissue, very precise cuts can be achieved in surgery or material processing. Furthermore, the absorption behavior is very beneficial for applications where the sensing of molecules of water, carbon or methane gases is of interest. This gives 2 µm sources a great market potential for the use in gas detection and LIDAR systems.

To meet this large application potential, APE has extended the FROG (Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating) wavelength range. It can now efficiently measure the spectral and temporal properties in the range of 1800 – 2200 nm.