Better Source Material
A new mid-IR source could have powerful potential
What?
A new broadband light source that can produce infrared light in the 4.5–20 µm region, based on a powerful disk-based oscillator.
How?
The thin disk is pumped by a thulium-doped fiber laser emitting at 1908 nm, “resulting in a much smaller quantum defect and up-conversion process compared to the traditional Ho/Tm co-doped system” (

Credit: Thorsten Naeser
Who?
The source is the result of a long-term collaboration between laser technology company Trumpf, and Ference Krausz and Oleg Pronin from the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, as well as researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich.
What next?
The team believes that this development has great potential within a wide variety of spectroscopic techniques. “Time resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, scattering near-field optical microscopy and potentially dual-comb spectroscopy will benefit from the improved coverage and increased power,” the research paper states (
- 1J Zhang et al., “Multi-mW, few-cycle mid-infrared continuum spanning from 500 to 2250 cm-1”, Light Sci Appl, 7, 17180 (2018).