Functional periodically poled-crystals for powerful intracavity CW difference-frequency-generation of widely tunable high spectral purity IR radiation

We present a novel tunable highly-coherent tunable source of IR radiation, based on difference-frequency generation inside a miniature Ti:sapphire ring laser cavity by means of periodically-poled LiNbO3. Single mode operation of the Ti:sapphire laser is provided by injection locking from an external-cavity diode laser and a tunable-laser-injected fiber amplifier provides the signal radiation for the mixing. Such a source can be used in spectroscopic set-ups for high sensitivity molecular sensing. Additional features are provided by properly altering key properties of the 1-D photonic crystal.