V Petrov et al 2001 J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 3 R1 doi:10.1088/1464-4258/3/3/201
V Petrov, F Rotermund and F Noack
Show affiliationsWe review methods for frequency conversion of amplified femtosecond laser pulses from the near- to the mid-infrared. The potential of all commercially available optical crystals is evaluated on the basis of the specific requirements in the high-power femtosecond regime. A comparative experimental study of a number of materials (birefringent and quasi-phase-matched) employed in a seeded optical parametric amplifier pumped near 800 nm is presented, where the generated idler is tunable between 3 and 4 µm. Internal conversion efficiencies as high as 40% and pulse energies as high as 20 µJ are achieved in this spectral range. Wavelength tunability up to 12 µm with energies exceeding 1 µJ is demonstrated by pumping optical parametric amplifiers and generators near 1.25 and 2 µm, as well as by difference frequency generation with a quantum efficiency of 40-80%. In all cases the generated mid-infrared pulses are almost bandwidth limited with a duration of 100-200 fs.
42.65.Re Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression
42.70.Mp Nonlinear optical crystals
42.65.Ky Frequency conversion; harmonic generation, including higher-order harmonic generation
Issue 3 (May 2001)
Received 28 October 2000, in final form 28 March 2001
V Petrov et al 2001 J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 3 R1
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