OPA Pumping

Application note OPA

A vast number of applications benefit from tunable wavelengths to enable variable excitation conditions. This demand is typically satisfied by optical parametric amplifiers (OPA) [1]. They utilize a second-order nonlinear interaction  (2)) of two input laser beams (pump + signal) where the pump beam is depleted during the interaction producing an amplified signal beam. A wavelength conversion is typically achieved by simple rotations of the crystal that provides the nonlinear interaction thereby optimizing the phase-matching condition for the desired wavelengths.

The generation of long-wavelength radiation (several µm, Mid-IR) is particularly suited to be realized using an OPA, but they are also useful for wavelength tuning in the visible to UV spectral range [2,3]. The limited efficiency of the OPA process [4] sets high demands to the energy and average power of the pump source.  Our ultrashort-pulsed Fiber lasers can provide extremely high average power up to 2kW with a pulse energy of up to 20mJ. Upon request, AFS offers various OPA systems seamlessly integrated behind our fiber lasers to match your experimental requirements.