A BaGa₄Se₇ nanosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) shows extremely wide idler tunability in the mid-IR (2.7-17 μm) under 1.064 μm pumping. The ∼10  ns pulses at ∼7.2  μm have an energy of 3.7 mJ at 10 Hz. The pump-to-idler conversion efficiency for this wavelength reaches 5.9% with a slope of 6.5% corresponding to a quantum conversion efficiency or pump depletion of 40%.

We demonstrate an optical parametric oscillator based on two HgGa 2 S 4 crystals with an extremely wide tuning range from 4.2 to 10.8 μm. The HgGa 2 S 4 optical parametric oscillator was pumped by a Q-switched nanosecond Nd : YLF laser at 1.053 μm. The absorption spectrum of ammonia was presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed optical parametric oscillator system for spectroscopic measurements and gas detection.

The infrared laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) and the pattern-recognition-based approach for noninvasive express diagnostics of pulmonary diseases on the basis of absorption spectra analysis of the patient’s exhaled air are presented. The study involved lung cancer patients ( N = 9 ), patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( N = 12 ), and a control group of healthy, nonsmoking volunteers ( N = 11 ). The analysis of the measured absorption spectra was based at first on reduction of the dimension of the feature space using principal component analysis; thereafter, the dichotomous classification was carried out using the support vector machine. The gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method (GC–MS) was used as the reference. The estimated mean value of the sensitivity of exhaled air sample analysis by the LPAS in dichotomous classification was not less than 90% and specificity was not less than 69%; the analogous results of analysis by GC–MS were 68% and 60%, respectively. Also, the approach to differential diagnostics based on the set of SVM classifiers usage is presented.

We report on the first BaGa 4 Se 7 nanosecond optical parametric oscillator pumped by Q-switched Nd:YLiF 4 laser at 1053 nm. The oscillator exhibits a pump threshold energy as low as 0.25 mJ. Midinfrared (MIR) idler wave tuning from 2.6 μm to 10.4 μm is demonstrated with an angle-tuned type-I (o-ee) y-cut sample, highlighting the superior performance of this novel large bandgap chalcogenide nonlinear crystal to generate tunable coherent radiation over its full MIR transparency range (0.47-18 μm). The phase-matching data are used to identify the most accurate dispersion relations of this compound among three recently published Sellmeier equations. Damage threshold measurements yielded values as high as 2.04 J cm −2 at 100 Hz pulse repetition rate, one of the largest among existing MIR χ (2) nonlinear materials.

A AgGaSe2 nonlinear crystal placed in a coupled cavity is intracavity pumped by the ~1.85-µm signal pulses of a 1.064-µm pumped Rb:PPKTP doubly-resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. Using two samples cut for type-I and II phase-matching, the overall idler tunability of the singly-resonant AgGeSe2 OPO covers an unprecedented spectral range from 5.8 to ~18 µm in the mid-IR.