Patent ID: 8670642

Claim:
An optical system for use in a spectroscopy procedure, the system comprising: one or more semiconductor diodes configured to generate an input beam, wherein at least a portion of the input beam comprises a wavelength shorter than 2.5 microns; one or more optical amplifiers configured to receive at least the portion of the input beam and to communicate an intermediate beam to an output end of the one or more optical amplifiers; one or more optical fibers configured to receive at least a portion of the intermediate beam and to communicate at least the portion of the intermediate beam to a distal end of the one or more optical fibers to form a first optical beam; a nonlinear element configured to receive at least a portion of the first optical beam and to broaden a spectrum associated with the at least a portion of the first optical beam to at least 50 nm through a nonlinear effect in the nonlinear element to form an output beam with an output beam broadened spectrum; and a subsystem comprising one or more lenses or mirrors configured to receive at least a portion of the output beam and to deliver at least the portion of the output beam to a sample to perform spectroscopy for characterizing the sample, wherein at least a portion of the output beam broadened spectrum that substantially minimizes water absorption, wherein the at least a portion of the output beam has a temporal duration greater than approximately 30 picoseconds, wherein at least the portion of the output beam has a repetition rate between continuous wave and Megahertz or higher, wherein a time averaged output power of the output beam is 20 mW or more, and wherein a time averaged intensity of the at least a portion of the output beam is less than approximately 50 MW/cm 2 .