The applicability of a KTA crystal-based laser system with optical parametric oscillators (OPO) generation to lidar sounding of the atmosphere in the spectral range 3–4 μm is studied in this work. A technique developed for lidar sounding of trace atmospheric gases (TAG) is based on differential absorption lidar (DIAL) method and differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). The DIAL-DOAS technique is tested to estimate its efficiency for lidar sounding of atmospheric trace gases. The numerical simulation performed shows that a KTA-based OPO laser is a promising source of radiation for remote DIAL-DOAS sounding of the TAGs under study along surface tropospheric paths. A possibility of using a PD38-03-PR photodiode for the DIAL gas analysis of the atmosphere is shown.
Progresses in nonlinear optical materials research and laser pump source development have led to rapid advances in many areas of optical parametric device technology in recent years. One particularly active area has been broadly tunable femtosecond sources. This tutorial begins with a review of the fundamentals of parametric processes. It is followed by a brief review of some of the more recent advances in femtosecond optical parametric oscillators, covering the spectral range from the visible to the mid-infrared.
Opo lidar sounding of trace atmospheric gases in the 3 – 4 μm spectral range
