All-fiber mid-infrared source tunable from 6 to 9 μm based on difference frequency generation in OP-GaP crystal

We report the first fully fiberized difference frequency generation (DFG) source, delivering a broadly tunable idler in the 6 to 9 μm spectral range, using an orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP) crystals with different quasi-phase matching periods (QPM). The mid-infrared radiation (MIR) is obtained via mixing of the output of a graphene-based Er-doped fiber laser at 1.55 μm with coherent frequency-shifted solitons at 1.9 μm generated in a highly nonlinear fiber using the same seed. The presented setup is the first truly all-fiber, all-polarization maintaining, alignment-free DFG source reported so far. Its application to laser spectroscopy was demonstrated by the absorption spectrum measurement of ν₄ band of methane in 7.5 - 8.3 µm spectral range. The system simplicity and compactness paves the way for applications in field-deployable optical frequency comb spectroscopy systems for gas sensing.