Abstract

The rapid advance of spectroscopic investigations of molecules and semiconductors¹ in the subpicosecond time regime increasingly calls for ultrashort light pulses in a wide spectral range extending to the midinfrared (MIR). In this paper we present a novel laser system based exclusively on solid-state components, for the generation of femtosecond pulses in the MIR. Our system provides pulses at a repetition rate of 1 kHz that are tunable from 1000 to 3000 cm⁻¹ with pulse energies up to 50 nJ. The pulse duration of the nearly-transform-limited pulses is as short as 150 fs.²

© 1995 Optical Society of America