High average power difference-frequency generation of picosecond mid-IR pulses at 80MHz using an Yb-fiber laser pumped optical parametric oscillator

We present an efficient coherent source widely tunable in the mid-infrared spectral range consisting of a commercial picosecond Yb-fiber laser operating at 80 MHz repetition rate, a synchronously-pumped OPO (SPOPO) and differencefrequency generation (DFG) in AgGaSe2. With an average input pump power of 7.8 W at 1032 nm and at 80 MHz, the SPOPO outputs are tunable from 1380 to 1980 nm (Signal) and from 2.1 to ~4 μm (Idler) with pulse durations between 2.1 and 2.6 ps over the entire tuning range. After temporally overlapping Signal and Idler through a delay line, the two beams are spatially recombined with a dichroic mirror (reflecting for the Signal in s-polarization and transmitting for the Idler in p-polarization), and focused by a 150 mm CaF2 lens to a common focus. For DFG we employ an AR-coated 10- mm thick AgGaSe2 nonlinear crystal cut for type-I interaction at θ =52°. The generated mid-infrared picosecond pulses are continuously tunable between 5 and 18 μm with average power up to 130 mW at 6 μm and more than 1 mW at 18 μm. Their spectra and autocorrelation traces are measured up to 15 μm and 11 μm, respectively, and indicate that the input spectral bandwidth and pulse duration are maintained to a great extent in the nonlinear frequency conversion processes. The pulse duration slightly decreases from 2.1 to 1.9 ps at 6.7 μm while the spectral bandwidth supports ~1.5 ps (~10 cm-1)durations across the entire mid-infrared tuning range. For the first time narrow-band mid-infrared pulses with energy exceeding 1 nJ are generated at such high repetition rates.