Abstract

Widely tunable laser sources emitting picosecond pulses are of high interest for time-resolved spectroscopy applications where broadband femtosecond sources would not be relevant [1-3]. Among the few solid-state laser materials suitable for direct emission in the mid-IR, Cr²⁺:ZnSe has recently emerged as a promising candidate thanks to its exceptionally broad gain (2-3.2 µm) and to several others attractive properties [4]. Much effort has been put on femtosecond passive mode locking in Cr:ZnSe using SESAMs or Kerr lensing. However, widely tunable narrow-linewidth operation in the picosecond regime has not been demonstrated up to now due to the limited spectral bandwidth offered by SESAMs and the narrow stability region of Kerr-lens mode locking.

© 2011 Optical Society of America