Efficient spectral shift and compression of femtosecond pulses by parametric amplification of chirped light.

We present a method for an efficient spectral shift and compression of pulses from a femtosecond laser system. The method enables generation of broadly tunable (615-985 nm) narrow bandwidth (≈10 cm(-1)) pulses from the femtosecond pulses at 1030 nm. It employs a direct parametric amplification--without spectral filtering--of highly chirped white light by a narrow bandwidth (<5 cm(-1)) 515 nm pump pulse. The system, when pumped with just 200 μJ of the fundamental femtosecond pulse energy, generates pulses with energies of 3-9 μJ and an excellent beam quality in the entire tuning range.