Development of infrared chemical sensors based on quasi-phasematched, periodically poles lithium niobate sources

Abstract

Periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) is a relatively new non-linear optical material which can be used for such processes as second harmonic generation, sum and difference frequency generation and optical parametric oscillation. The use of periodically-poled lithium niobate in spectroscopy and chemical sensing offers many potential advantages over systems employing more traditional laser sources. When pumped by the fundamental of a Nd:YAG laser PPLN offers the promise of high efficiency, high power, broad tunability (1.5–3.5 µm) and compact size. The broad tunability over the C-H stretch region is an important advantage for many chemical sensing applications. At Sandia, we are developing IR sources based on PPLN for both remote and in-situ chemical sensing.