High energy femtosecond mid-infrared generation pumped by a two-color Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier

Intense mid-infrared was generated by direct frequency mixing two pulses from a dual-wavelength Ti:sapphire system. From a multipass amplifier we generated two tunable wavelength femtosecond pulses with a total energy of 15 mJ. Pulse energy of 1.6 μJ and 7.4 μJ of mid-infrared light is achieved with and without its multipass amplifier at 9–11 μm, with pulse duration of 500 fs. Supported by Photonics Research Ontario, NSERC, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of Canada