IR-to-visible image upconverter under nonlinear crystal thermal gradient operation

Opt Express. 2018 Jan 22;26(2):1133-1144. doi: 10.1364/OE.26.001133.

Abstract

In this work we study the enhancement of the field-of-view of an infrared image up-converter by means of a thermal gradient in a PPLN crystal. Our work focuses on compact upconverters, in which both a short PPLN crystal length and high numerical aperture lenses are employed. We found a qualitative increase in both wavelength and angular tolerances, compared to a constant temperature upconverter, which makes it necessary a correct IR wavelength allocation in order to effectively increase the up-converted area.