Broadly tunable femtosecond near- and mid-IR source by direct pumping of an OPA with a 417 MHz Yb:KGW oscillator

We generate over half a watt of tunable near-IR (1380-1830 nm) and several hundred milliwatts in the mid-IR (2.4-4.2 µm) as well as milliwatt level mid-IR (4.85-9.33 µm) femtosecond radiation by pumping an optical parametric amplifier directly with a 7.4 W Yb:KGW oscillator at 41.7 MHz repetition rate. We use 5 mm PPLN and 2 mm GaSe as downconversion crystals and seed this process by a supercontinuum from a tapered fiber. The system is extremely simple and very stable and could replace more complex OPOs as tunable light sources.