Pulse shaping in an optical parametric oscillator with fibre feedback

Ultrashort pulses in the infrared have a wide range of applications and synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (SPOPOs) have proven to be attractive sources in this context, providing femtosecond and picosecond pulses with broad tuning ranges in the near- and mid- infrared. A goal of the work reported here is to develop methods to control the temporal and spectral shape of these pulses so as to meet the optimal requirements of a given experiment. For this, parametric gain offers not only the broad signal gain bandwidth to support short pulse amplification, but also the ability to manipulate the idler characteristics via control of the signal pulses