A tunable continuous wave(cw) mid-infrared(MIR) laser based on difference-frequency generation(DFG) in a 1.5-cm long AgGaS2 nonlinear crystal for trace gas detection is reported.Two visible and near-infrared diode lasers were used as pump and signal sources.The MIR-DFG laser was tunable in a wavelength range of 4.75 μm-4.88 μm.The phase-matching(PM) condition was non-critically achieved by adjusting the temperature of the crystal for fixed pairs of input pump and signal wavelengths.The required PM temperatures of the generated MIR-DFG wavelengths have been calculated by using three sets of recent Sellmeier equations and the temperature-dispersion equations of AgGaS2 given by Willer U,et al.(Willer U,Blanke T and Schade W 2001 Appl.Opt.40 5439).Then the calculated PM temperatures are compared with the experimental values.The performance of the MIR-DFG laser is shown by the trace detection of the P(16) carbon monoxide(12C16O) absorption line in a laboratory-fabricated absorption cell.The enhanced sensitivity of about 0.6×10 4 was obtained through the long path absorption provided by consecutive reflections between coated cylindrical mirrors of a constructed cell. A tunable continuous wave (cw) mid-infrared (MIR) laser based on difference-frequency generation (DFG) in a 1.5-cm long AgGaS2 nonlinear crystal for trace gas detection is reported. Two visible and near-infrared diode lasers were used as pump and signal sources. The MIR-DFG laser was tunable in a wavelength range of 4.75 μm-4.88 μm. The phase-matching (PM) condition was non-critically achieved by adjusting the temperature of the crystal for fixed pairs of input pump and signal wavelengths.The required PM temperatures were generated by using three sets of recent Sellmeier equations and the temperature-dispersion equations of AgGaS2 given by Willer U, et al. (Willer U, Blanke T and Schade W 2001 Appl. Opt. 40 5439) .Then the calculated PM temperatures are compared with the experimental values. The performance of the MIR-DFG laser is shown by the trace detection of the P (16) carbon monoxide (12C16O) absorption line in a laboratory-fabricated absorption cell.T he enhanced sensitivity of about 0.6 × 10 4 was obtained through the long path absorption provided by consecutive reflections between coated cylindrical mirrors of a constructed cell.