Generation of tunable narrowband pulses initiating from a femtosecond optical parametric amplifier

We report a tunable optical pulse expander capable of producing narrowband long pulses, starting from a femtosecond optical parametric amplifier (OPA), which is based on chirp-matched frequency mixing technique. The device delivers nJ-level pulses with bandwidth of similar to 0.1 nm and duration of similar to 45 ps within its tuning range from 1000 nm to 1090 nm. The combination of a femtosecond OPA and a pulse expander may provide synchronized and both tunable femtosecond and tens of picoseconds pulses simultaneously, which should be promising in the applications where both temporal and spectral resolutions are needed. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.