Generation of 30-fs ultraviolet pulses by four-wave optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

We report on the generation of similar to 30-fs ultraviolet pulses with similar to 10 mu J energy by means of four-wave optical parametric chirped pulse amplification in fused silica. The four-wave optical parametric amplifier is pumped by the second-harmonic of the Ti:sapphire laser and is seeded by visible broadband chirped signal pulses. The idler pulses are produced in the ultraviolet by four-wave mixing and are compressed in a medium with normal group velocity dispersion. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America