Compact all-solid-state high repetition rate tunable ultraviolet source for airborne atmospheric gas sensing

A diode-pumped, all-solid-state, high pulse repetition rate, tunable source of UV radiation is presented. The system is compact, has low power requirements and is suitable for the in situ monitoring of important atmospheric species from an airborne platform. At 3 kHz pulse repetition rate, up to 0.42 ± 0.02 mW of UV radiation was generated and the tuning range extended from ∼282 nm to 292 nm. The bandwidth was ≤0.6nm and each pulse had a FWHM duration of 16.0 ± 1.4 ns. The stability of the output was 13% pulse-to-pulse and 4% for an average power measurement. The performance of the system is compared to theoretical expectations.