High repetition rate two-color pump-probe system directly pumped by a femtosecond ytterbium oscillator

In this work, we demonstrate that optical parametric generation (OPG) is a simple and powerful technique for the generation of broadly tunable pulses at 1 MHz repetition rate; our system enables performing high sensitivity two-color pump-probe experiments in the near-IR spectral range, with a compact and low-cost setup. The experimental apparatus starts with a diode-pumped Yb:KYW oscillator equipped with an electro-optic cavity dumper which allows for the extraction of 350-fs, 1.5-muJ pulses at 1030 nm and repetition rates up to 1 MHz.