Mid infrared femtosecond AgGaSe/sub 2/ optical parametric oscillator

Summary form only given. Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are well suited for the generation of high power ps and fs light pulses in the near infrared region up to 4 /spl mu/m using KTP or its isomorphs. The spectral region of the mid infrared can, in principle, be covered using such nonlinear crystals as AgGaS/sub 2/, AgGaSe/sub 2/ and ZnGeP/sub 2/. This has been demonstrated with pulsed ns OPOs and mode-locked ps-OPOs. We report what is to our best knowledge the first demonstration of femtosecond continuous-wave (CW) mode-locked operation of an AgGaSe/sub 2/-OPO in the mid infrared spectral region.