Mid-IR laser for the LYSA system

The recent improvement of modern intelligent IR-seekers, which distinguishes flares and decoys from real targets, has lead to an increasing demand for lasers for directed infrared countermeasures. We report here the construction, initial tests and characterization of a tuneable mid infrared laser based on a PPLN OPO pumped at 1064 nm by a Nd:YVO4 laser with 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency. The laser system has been run in two different configurations to obtain radiation from the OPO at the two different wavelengths 2.4 and 3.5 µm, respectively. The maximumaverage powers were 700 mW at 2.4 µm and 516 mW at 3.5 µm. The idler pulselength was 22 ns.