Search

Abstract: We report on four-wave optical parametric amplification of the ultrashort ultraviolet light pulses in bulk fused silica and . Exact phase-matching in these isotropic media is achieved by means of non-collinear interaction with cylindrical beam focusing. Four-wave optical parametric amplifier efficiently operates in the UV spectral range with 1-ps laser pulses, delivering amplified signal energy exceeding 50μJ using millijoule pump pulses in the visible (527nm). Results of scanning of the parametric gain profile suggest that broad amplification bandwidth as wide as ∼20nm (at FWHM) under these experimental settings is achieved, which might support amplification of sub-10-fs ultraviolet pulses with central wavelength around 330nm. It is also shown experimentally and verified theoretically that the parametric gain profile exposes a distinct inhomogeneity and its bandwidth notably broadens due to effects of self- and cross-phase modulation imposed by the intense pump beam. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We present a novel time-gated characterization technique that allows to directly monitor the time evolution of the angular spectra within femtosecond laser pulses. We show an application of the technique to the case of a 160-fs chirped pulse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]