1-GHz repetition-rate femtosecond optical parametric oscillator

Summary form only given. High-repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses tunable in the infrared and visible spectral range can be widely applied for time-resolved spectroscopy and pump-probe measurements with a high signal to noise ratio (SNR). Femtosecond OPOs operating at high repetition rate in the near infrared (1.3 /spl mu/m and 1.55 /spl mu/m) are potentially of great importance for optical communication systems to achieve high data rates and high capacity. However, femtosecond OPOs reported so far operated below 400 MHz. In this contribution, we report 1 GHz operation of a femtosecond periodically poled LiNbO/sub 3/ optical parametric oscillator pumped by a 1 GHz Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser.