Patent ID: 7151787

Claim:
A light source to provide illumination for a scene for a backscatter absorption gas imaging system comprising: a light-generating device producing light at more than one wavelength; an optical fiber amplifier having at least one pump laser with an output and a gain medium, where each of said at least one pump laser is an air-cooled pump laser having an operating temperature at an ambient temperature, where said optical fiber amplifier accepts light from said light generating device and produces amplified light at said more than one wavelength, and where the absorption of the output of said pump laser by said gain medium varies by no more than about 10% over a range of ambient temperatures of from about 0 C to about 40 C; and a nonlinear frequency converter including an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) to accept said amplified light and generate an output of the light source at wavelengths shifted from and corresponding to each of said more than one wavelength.