High-power, mid-infrared, picosecond pulses generated by compression of a CO2 laser beat-wave in GaAs

摘要

We report on the generation of a train of ~ 2 ps, 10 um laser pulses viamultiple four-wave mixing and compression of an infrared laser beat-wavepropagating in the negative group velocity dispersion region of bulk GaAs and acombination of GaAs and NaCl. The use of a 200 ps, 106 GHz beat-wave, producedby combining laser pulses amplified on the 10P(20) and 10P(16) transition of aCO2 laser, provides a novel method for generating high-power, picosecond,mid-IR laser pulses at a high repetition rate. By using 165 and 882 GHzbeat-waves we show that cascaded phase-mismatched difference frequencygeneration plays a significant role in the four-wave mixing process in GaAs.