A broadband and compact femtosecond delay compensator with birefringent crystals. (24th January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cao, Yue; Liu, Xinyi; Liu, Wei-Tao
• Is Part Of: Laser physics letters. Volume 14:Number 3(2017:Mar.)
• Publication Date: 2017-01-24
• Subjects: femtosecond laser -- broadband mid-infrared -- difference frequency generations -- ultrafast pulses; Lasers -- Periodicals; Physics -- Periodicals; 621.366
• DOI: 10.1088/1612-202X/aa5692
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1612-2011

Abstract

Abstract: The accurate control of time delay is key to many applications of ultrafast femtosecond lasers, while it often requires high precision optomechanics and specialized optics that may limit the tunability. Here we report a compact, broadband, and low-cost design for the accurate delay control using birefringent crystals. As a demonstration, we used it to synchronize input beams for a difference frequency generation (DFG) stage pumped by a commercial 60 fs optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The DFG power can be boosted up to ~160% in a wide range of 2.8–14 µ m, without causing appreciable narrowing of the pulse bandwidth. Our design can be readily incorporated into existing ultrafast laser systems to improve the performance, or for accurate delay control between ultrafast laser pulses.