Open AccessNarrow-bandwidth picosecond pulses by spectral compression of femtosecond pulses in second-order nonlinear crystals
Author(s) -
Marco Marangoni,
Daniele Brida,
M. Quintavalle,
Giovanni Cirmi,
F.M. Pigozzo,
Cristian Manzoni,
Fabio Baronio,
Antonio-Daniele Capobianco,
Giulio Cerullo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.008884
Subject(s) - femtosecond , optics , picosecond , lithium tantalate , narrowband , bandwidth (computing) , materials science , pulse compression , broadband , nonlinear optics , barium borate , second harmonic generation , laser , lithium niobate , optoelectronics , physics , telecommunications , radar , computer science
We introduce a simple approach for the efficient generation of tunable narrow-bandwidth picosecond pulses synchronized to broadband femtosecond ones. Second harmonic generation in the presence of large group velocity mismatch between the interacting pulses transfers a large fraction of the energy of a broadband fundamental frequency pulse into a narrowband second harmonic one. Using a periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate crystal coupled to an infrared optical parametric amplifier, we generated 200-nJ pulses with spectral width lower than 8.5 cm(-1) and tunability from 720 to 890 nm. Energy scaling and extension of the tuning range are straightforward.