New-generation LIDAR Technology with Backward Optical Parametric processes

Greenhouse gases are causing the planet to heat up. Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) is a method for monitoring the atmosphere and its constituents.

Evolving methods like DIAL are urgent for improving information-based decisions in the war against anthropogenic climate change. In DIAL, laser light of two different colors is used to measure atmospheric gas concentrations.

Lasers are often restricted to specific colors of light, and, using DIAL, gases cannot be monitored unless it is opaque to one of the laser light´s two colors. This combined shortage is often mended by the conversion of the laser light using nonlinear optical interactions.

Since a DIAL device needs precise light sources, using specially tailored ones, such as complex parametric oscillators, is common.

Consequently, this reduces the use of the method as operating DIAL systems is a complicated endeavor mandating expert handling.This project aims to relieve complexity and bring DIAL to a broader audience.

The simplification is done by introducing new precise (i.e., narrowband) light sources based on backward phase-matched nonlinear interactions for real-world DIAL applications. We believe these can be integral to a new generation of DIAL systems. The sources are made possible by precisely engineering nonlinear optical materials and lasers.

We want to study and integrate these into DIAL. The plan is to test it in laboratory settings and, ultimately, in real-world DIAL spectroscopy.