Patent ID: 8233508

Claim:
An optical detection system comprising: a continuous wave (CW) pump laser that outputs a CW pump laser beam; a seeding laser that is pumped by a first portion of the CW pump laser beam, wherein the seeding laser outputs a CW laser beam at a given wavelength; a pulsed-pump laser that is pumped by a second portion of the CW pump laser beam, and that is seeded by the CW laser beam at the given wavelength, wherein the pulsed-pump laser outputs a pulsed beam at the given wavelength; a CW tunable laser that is pumped by a third portion of the CW pump laser beam, wherein the CW tunable laser outputs a CW tunable laser beam, wherein the CW tunable laser beam is narrowband and continuously tunable in a spectral range of about 2-3.5 microns; an optical parametric generator (OPG)-optical parametric amplifier (OPA) that is pumped by the pulsed beam, and is seeded by the CW tunable laser beam, wherein the OPG-OPA outputs a probe laser beam that is tunable over a mid-IR spectral range of about 2-10 microns; a test cell to contain a gas sample, wherein the test cell is disposed to receive the probe laser beam, wherein the test cell outputs a signal proportional to an absorption of the received probe laser beam by the gas sample; and a laser controller to receive the output signal from the test cell, and to determine a wavelength of the OPG-OPA beam corresponding to the received output signal, wherein the laser controller is configured to continuously control a wavelength of the probe laser beam over the 2-10 micron mid-IR spectral range.