Broadband tunable MIR to LWIR femtosecond laser based on optical parametric amplification

We demonstrate broadband tunable long-wave infrared laser generation via optical parametric amplification (OPA) using LGS crystals, with a three-stage OPA system pumped by a commercial Yb-based solid-state laser. The signal pulses are tunable in the range of 1.1 to 1.5 μm, while the idler pulses can be tuned from 4 to 10 μm. This laser system can deliver an average power of 138 mW for the signal pulses, corresponding to 46 µJ per pulse, and an average power of 38 mW for the idler pulses, corresponding to 11 µJ per pulse. At 8.7 µm, the pump to idler photon efficiency is about 27.8%, and the pump to idler energy conversion efficiency is approximately 3.3%. We anticipate that this versatile source will find applications in ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy and light-matter interaction.