Low-Cost Mid-Wavelength Infrared All-Fiber Source

An all-fiber mid-infrared laser source offers many unique features that are key to next-generation infrared countermeasure systems. We propose a low-cost all-fiber mid-infrared light source operating in 2-5 micron wavelength range with ~1000watt average output power, based on our proprietary infrared glass/fiber technology. All-fiber monolithic design allows us to develop such a low-cost fiber laser source with high output power and high wall-plug efficiency in a compact robust platform for airborne infrared countermeasure application. BENEFIT: The proposed technology will offer a compact, reliable, power-scalable, mid-infrared fiber source in the spectral regions spanning from near-infrared to mid-infrared, and even up to far-infrared regions. The compact high-power supercontinuum source will be very useful for a lot of applications, such as next-generation infrared countermeasure, infrared optical coherent tomography, photonic component characterization, interferometer metrology, and molecular spectroscopy/chemical sensing.