Parametric laser pulse shortening.

Abstract

We report simultaneous laser pulse shortening and wavelength conversion based on spectral-temporal correlation in high-gain optical parametric generation (OPG). By spectrally filtering the off-peak signal energy, we shortened a 560 ps pump pulse at 1064 nm to an 80 ps signal pulse at 1.5 μm from a 45 mm long PPLN optical parametric generator with 60 μJ pump energy from a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Using the same technique, we further demonstrated a 3.6 time shortened laser pulse at 1072 nm from noncollinearly phase matched OPG in a 44 mm long lithium niobate crystal with 3 mJ amplified pump energy from the same Nd:YAG laser.