Pulse compression of submillijoule few-optical-cycle infrared laser pulses using chirped mirrors

We report generation of 400 \u3bcJ, 13.1 fs, 1425 nm optical parametric amplifier laser pulses. Spectral broadening of a 100 Hz optical parametric amplifier laser source is achieved by self-phase modulation in an argon-filled hollow-core fiber, and dispersion compensation is performed using chirped mirrors. This laser source will be useful for ultrafast time-resolved molecular orbital tomography.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye