Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate large, widely tunable gain using Kerr instability amplification in MgO. By pumping the crystal near optical damage at $1.4 \times {10^{13}}\;{{\rm W/cm}^2}$ by a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser, we amplify visible and near-infrared pulses by factors ${\gt}5000$ or a gain $g \approx\! 17/\;{\rm mm}$. We temporally characterize the pulses to show that they are 42 fs in duration, much shorter than the pump pulse. In the non-collinear setup, the angle between the pump and seed selects the amplified wavelength, where we find certain angles amplify both the visible and near-infrared simultaneously. We find that near the maximum pumping intensities, higher-order nonlinearities may play a role in the amplification process.

© 2021 Optical Society of America

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