Tunable 50-fs pulse generation in the 250-310-nm ultraviolet range

Author

Ziegler, L.D. ; Morais, J. ; Zhou, Y. ; Constantine, S. ; Reed, M.K. ; Steiner-Shepard, M.K. ; Lommel, Doug

Author_Institution

Dept. of Chem., Boston Univ., MA, USA

Volume

34

Issue

9

fYear

1998

fDate

9/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1758

Lastpage

1764

Abstract

A newly designed high-repetition rate regenerative amplifier system producing sub-50 fs, ~7 μJ pulses at 100 kHz (~4 μJ at 250 kHz) is used to pump a fully tunable optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The resulting transform limited visible pulses in the 510-610-nm range have pulsewidths of ~40 fs and energies in the range of 350-550 nJ. Doubling these pulses in thin (0.110-0.150 mm) BBO crystals results in near transform-limited ultraviolet (UV) pulses (255-305 nm) with high efficiency (20%-30%) across this tunable wavelength range. The upconverted pulsewidths in the 0.110-mm crystal vary from 55 to 40 fs in the range from 255 to 305 nm correspondingly. These pulsewidths are limited, particularly at the shortest wavelength, by group velocity mismatch of the fundamental and second harmonic pulses in the BBO. This system can be further optimized for the production of even shorter pulses at these UV wavelengths

Keywords

barium compounds; high-speed optical techniques; light sources; optical harmonic generation; optical materials; optical parametric amplifiers; optical pumping; tuning; μJ pulses; 0.11 to 0.15 mm; 20 to 30 percent; 255 to 305 nm; 350 to 550 nJ; 4 muJ; 50 fs; 510 to 610 nm; 55 to 40 fs; 7 muJ; BBO crystals; BaB₂O₄; UV wavelengths; fully tunable optical parametric amplifier; group velocity mismatch; high efficiency; high-repetition rate regenerative amplifier system; near transform-limited UV pulses; optical frequency doubling; optical pumping; optimized; pulsewidths; second harmonic pulses; shorter pulses; transform limited visible pulses; tunable fs pulse generation; tunable wavelength range; ultraviolet range; upconverted pulsewidths; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical design; Optical pulses; Optical pumping; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse generation; Repeaters; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.709594

Filename

709594