Mid-infrared pulse generation using multi-plate white-light generation and optical parametric amplification in LiGaS2 crystals

Abstract

We demonstrate intense mid-infrared pulse generation with a pulse energy of up to 6.2 μJ and a tunable wavelength range of 5.3–7.4 μm. This light source is based on white-light generation by multi-plate pulse compression of the output of a commercial Yb:KGW laser pulse followed by intra-pulse difference frequency generation (DFG) and optical parametric amplification in LiGaS2 crystals. Due to the use of intra-pulse DFG, we were able to generate carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable mid-infrared optical pulses with a CEP standard deviation of 114 mrad, corresponding to a timing fluctuation of 360 attoseconds during the 5-hour-long measurement.