TUNABLE PICOSECOND INFRARED-LASER SYSTEM BASED ON PARAMETRIC AMPLIFICATION IN KTP WITH A TI-SAPPHIRE AMPLIFIER

A picosecond laser system that will generate high-power tunable IR pulses with bandwidths suitable for spectroscopic applications is discussed. The system is based on white-light continuum generation in ethylene glycol and optical parametric amplification in potassium titanyl phosphate. The nonlinear-optical processes are driven by a regeneratively amplified Ti:sapphire laser that produces 1.7-ps pulses at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. Energies as high as 40 and 12 mu J have been achieved over the signal (1.02-1.16-mu m) and idler (2.6-3.7-mu m) tuning ranges, respectively. The IR beam temporal and spatial characteristics are also presented. (C) 1995 Optical Society of America