Ultralow-Noise Optical Parametric Amplifier for Stimulated Raman
  Scattering Imaging

Martin, Ines; Pertot, Yoann; Albert, Olivier; Pinoteau, Thomas; Coudreau, Sébastien; Pomarède, Simon; Villanueva, José; Gitzinger, Grégory; Leye, Penda; Jelicic, Ivan; Vaneph, Cyril; Kaplan, Daniel; Bux, Simone; Forget, Nicolas; Sylvestre, Thibaut; Métais, Samuel; Rigneault, Hervé

doi:10.48550/arXiv.2305.07357

Ultralow-Noise Optical Parametric Amplifier for Stimulated Raman Scattering Imaging

Version 3 2024-02-08, 17:00

Version 2 2023-06-08, 13:05

Version 1 2023-05-16, 16:01

preprint

posted on 2024-02-08, 17:00 authored by Ines Martin, Yoann Pertot, Olivier Albert, Thomas Pinoteau, Sébastien Coudreau, Simon Pomarède, José Villanueva, Grégory Gitzinger, Penda Leye, Ivan Jelicic, Cyril Vaneph, Daniel Kaplan, Simone Bux, Nicolas Forget, Thibaut Sylvestre, Samuel Métais, Hervé Rigneault

We present a 40-MHz ultrafast optical parametric amplifier (OPA), tunable from 0.8 to 1 $\mu$m, with a relative intensity noise (RIN) matching the shot-noise floor (-160 dB/Hz) above 2 MHz. The OPA is pumped by a 20-W Kerr-lens mode-locked Ytterbium laser and seeded by a a supercontinuum generated in an all-normal-dispersion (ANDi) fiber. With an average output power >1.5 W, this compact and simple scheme is an attractive alternative to synchronously-pumped optical parametric oscillators, especially within the context of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) imaging. To illustrate the latter, we perform chemical imaging of vinegar droplets in oil by SRS microscopy.