Efficient middle-infrared generation in LiGaS2by simultaneous spectral broadening and difference-frequency generation: erratum

Second-harmonic generation and self-phase modulation of few-cycle mid-infrared pulses

Near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses with a spectrum covering 5.4-11 μm are efficiently frequency-doubled in different GaSe crystals. The second-harmonic spectrum spans 3-4.3 μm at a power conversion efficiency of >20%. We measure an effective nonlinear coefficient of d_eff≈35  pm/V. We also report on self-phase modulation and spectral broadening of the mid-infrared pulses in various bulk materials and find an increase of 45% of spectral width for 5 mm of Ge. These results demonstrate that nonlinear optical conversions can efficiently be driven by few-cycle mid-infrared radiation.

Octave-spanning single-cycle middle-infrared generation through optical parametric amplification in LiGaS2

We report the generation of extremely broadband and inherently phase-locked mid-infrared pulses covering the 5 to 11 µm region. The concept is based on two stages of optical parametric amplification starting from a 270-fs Yb:KGW laser source. A continuum seeded, second harmonic pumped pre-amplifier in β-BaB₂O₄ (BBO) produces tailored broadband near-infrared pulses that are subsequently mixed with the fundamental pump pulses in LiGaS₂ (LGS) for mid-infrared generation and amplification. The pulse bandwidth and chirp is managed entirely by selected optical filters and bulk material. We find an overall quantum efficiency of 1% and a mid-infrared spectrum smoothly covering 5-11 µm with a pulse energy of 220 nJ at 50 kHz repetition rate. Electro-optic sampling with 12-fs long white-light pulses directly from self-compression in a YAG crystal reveals near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses (32 fs) with passively stable carrier-envelope phase. Such pulses will be ideal for producing attosecond electron pulses or for advancing molecular fingerprint spectroscopy.