Patent ID: 7606274

Claim:
An optical nose system having a broadly tunable, narrow linewidth mid-IR laser source wherein the laser source has a modular structure and comprises a) a tunable seed laser unit including a single-longitudinal mode, widely tunable TM 2+ :II-VI master oscillator with a TM 2+ :II-VI power amplifier having a laser output, where TM 2+ stands for transition metal ion selected from the group consisting of Cr 2+ , Fe 2+ , Co 2+ and Ni 2+ , and II-VI stands for ZnS, ZnSe, CdS, CdSe, ZnTe, CdTe and their mixtures wherein said seed laser is a broadly tunable single frequency laser without mode hoping which is comprised of Littrow or Littman dispersive cavity with accompanied by dynamic correction of cavity length; b) a pulsed pump laser unit including a single-frequency, high energy, Q-switch laser having a laser output; c) an Optical Parametric Generator-Amplifier, pumped by said pulsed pump laser unit and seeded by said seed tunable laser unit having a mid-IR output selectively variable over about 2 to 20 μm; and wherein said pulsed pump and seed tunable lasers are pumped by a single diode, diode array, or fiber laser.