Abstract
Much current interest in optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) is concentrated or the generation of ultrashort pulses in the mid-infrared 3-5-µm region for use in spectroscopy. Ti:sapphire pumping of the titanyl arsenate and phosphate groups of nonlinear crystals can provide mid-infrared pulses in the idler branch, but use of a non-critical phase-matching geometry limits the longest, attainable wavelength to approximately 3 µm.1 It is, therefore, necessary to utilize a crystal that is cut for critical phase-matching to extend the tunability in the infrared. We present results obtained with such a system where a Ti:sapphire-pumped femtosecond OPO based on critically phase-matched KTiOAsO4 (KTA) generates pulses covering the 2.8-4-µm region in the idler branch and 1.08-1.2 µm in the signal branch. Similar devices based on KTA2 and KTP3 have previously produced idler pulses of up to 1.9 µm and 3.65 µm respectively but we have extended this tuning range by using a different crystal cut, and selecting KTA to avoid absorption problems in KTP.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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