New OPO Extends and Simplifies Tuning of Ultrafast Laser Pulses

When utilized in conjunction with the company’s Chameleon Ultra tunable one-box laser, users can access an unprecedented automated tuning range of 340 nm to 1600 nm, with simple touchscreen controls and no manual intervention. This OPO provides hundreds of milliwatts of output power over most of its tuning range, that can be expanded to cover also the mid IR region between 1,750 and 4,000 nm.

Chameleon one-box Ti:S lasers have a fundamental tuning range of 680-1080 nm, the broadest in the industry. This tuning range can be further extended towards shorter wavelengths with the addition of frequency doubling and tripling options as well as towards longer wavelengths with an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The latest SHG option in the Chameleon OPO integrates the frequency doubling options of both Chameleon and the OPO into a single OPO unit. This gives the user complete flexibility to double both the laser and/or the OPO outputs all under touchscreen control, covering also the traditional Ti:S tuning gap (500-700 nm).

Use of the fan-poled OPO crystal technology, enables the Chameleon laser and the Chameleon OPO outputs, or their SHG outputs, to be independently tunable. This provides two full degrees of freedom in dual–color experiments.

The new Chameleon OPO is intended for applications in multiphoton imaging, time-resolved spectroscopy, Terahertz studies and materials science. Specifically, broad and independent tuning of the laser and OPO outputs enables CARS spectroscopy and imaging with a single laser system as well as fully flexible pump-probe studies in photochemistry and biology.