Parametric amplification-assisted cascaded four-wave mixing for ultrabroad laser sideband generation in a thin transparent medium

Abstract

We demonstrate distinct sets of broadband up-converted multicolor array (BUMA) signals in a thin transparent medium with an intense 800 nm fundamental pulse (FP) and a weak, unfiltered super-continuum white light (SCWL) in a crossing geometry. Upon varying the time delay between the two incident laser pulses, continuously tunable BUMA signals in the visible to near-IR range sequentially emerge on either side of the FP, in both BBO crystal and BK7 glass. Through numerical calculations at intrinsic phase-matching conditions, the BUMA signals on the SCWL side are shown to arise from the interaction mainly between χ(3)-based four-wave optical parametric amplification and cascaded four-wave mixing processes. The temporally controllable broadband BUMA signals with amplification and tunability all in one thin transparent medium are highly suitable for ultrafast laser spectroscopy and optical communication networks.