Abstract

High-energy femtosecond pulses tunable in a wide spectral region of the infrared are strongly needed for a variety of applications in nonlinear optics and spectroscopy. Optical parametric conversion has been demonstrated to be one of the most effective techniques for the generation of tunable ultrashort pulses due to the recent achievements in solid-state pump lasers and highly nonlinear crystals. In the case of low-energy femtosec­ond pulses synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators have been extensively investigated.^1,2 For the generation of high-energy tunable pulses, a traveling wave parametric conversion seems to be the most favorable technique.^3,4

© 1994 IEEE