Kozich, V; Moguilevski, A; Heyne, K

OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 2012, 285 (21), p. 4515-4518;

We present a traveling-wave-type optical parametric amplifier (OPA) pumped at 1.03 mm by a Yb:KGW laser that produces tunable high-energy pulses of 6.5-4 mJ in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) region from 3.6 to 7 mm. Pumping with negatively chirped pulses generates nearly transform-limited (TL) mid-IR pulses of 300-330 fs length. Pumping with TL pulses of 200 fs not only decreases the output energy by a factor of 1.5, but also decreases the mid-IR pulse-length to 160 fs after additional compression. The compact and simple OPA setup is ideal for femtosecond infrared experiments in the fingerprint region.

DOI 10.1016/j.optcom.2012.06.077