Abstract

We propose a scheme for optimizing the time delay between the pump and seed pulses of an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) over a large spectral range. The efficiency of this method is demonstrated for a femtosecond BBO parametric amplifier seeded with a white-light continuum pulse. The error signal used for intensity stabilization results from a modulation of the temporal delay between the pump and the continuum pulses and phase-sensitive detection of the amplified signal. It allows us to lock the delay to the position that maximizes the OPA gain.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

Highly efficient, widely tunable, 10-Hz parametric amplifier pumped by frequency-doubled femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses

Jing-yuan Zhang, Zuyan Xu, Yufei Kong, Chaowen Yu, and Yicheng Wu
Appl. Opt. 37(15) 3299-3305 (1998)

Sub-20-fs pulses tunable across the visible from a blue-pumped single-pass noncollinear parametric converter

T. Wilhelm, J. Piel, and E. Riedle
Opt. Lett. 22(19) 1494-1496 (1997)

Kilohertz femtosecond UV-pumped visible β-barium borate and lithium triborate optical parametric generator and amplifier

Hong Wang, Kam Sing Wong, Daoqun Deng, Zuyan Xu, George K. L. Wong, and Jingyuan Zhang
Appl. Opt. 36(9) 1889-1893 (1997)

Tunable femtosecond optical parametric amplifier in the mid-infrared with narrow-band seeding

V. Petrov and F. Noack
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 12(11) 2214-2221 (1995)

Efficient noncollinear parametric amplification of weak femtosecond pulses in the visible and near-infrared spectral range

V. Krylov, O. Ollikainen, J. Gallus, U. Wild, A. Rebane, and A. Kalintsev
Opt. Lett. 23(2) 100-102 (1998)