Abstract

We demonstrate a noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification scheme for generating high-peak-power tunable mid-infrared (IR) pulses. The high-gain ${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_3$-based noncollinear parametric amplifier, seeded by a tunable femtosecond optical parametric amplifier, provides a wide wavelength tuning range from 3.3 to 3.95 μm and a large saturated gain of over 4000 in a single-stage amplifier. The compressed mid-IR pulse has a pulse energy of 13.3 mJ and pulse duration of 111 fs, with a peak power as high as 120 GW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest peak power ever reported for 3–5 μm tunable mid-IR lasers.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

90 GW peak power few-cycle mid-infrared pulses from an optical parametric amplifier

Giedrius Andriukaitis, Tadas Balčiūnas, Skirmantas Ališauskas, Audrius Pugžlys, Andrius Baltuška, Tenio Popmintchev, Ming-Chang Chen, Margaret M. Murnane, and Henry C. Kapteyn
Opt. Lett. 36(15) 2755-2757 (2011)

Ultrabroadband few-cycle infrared pulse generation from a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier based on bulk niobate crystals

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 30(8) 2075-2080 (2013)

Sub-four-cycle laser pulses directly from a high-repetition-rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier at 3.4 μm

B. W. Mayer, C. R. Phillips, L. Gallmann, M. M. Fejer, and U. Keller
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High energy and average power femtosecond laser for driving mid-infrared optical parametric amplifiers

P. Malevich, G. Andriukaitis, T. Flöry, A. J. Verhoef, A. Fernández, S. Ališauskas, A. Pugžlys, A. Baltuška, L. H. Tan, C. F. Chua, and P. B. Phua
Opt. Lett. 38(15) 2746-2749 (2013)

Broadly tunable, sub-30 fs near-infrared pulses from an optical parametric amplifier based on BiB₃O₆

M. Ghotbi, V. Petrov, and F. Noack
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