A Novel Few-Cycle Optical Source in the Mid-Infrared

In this thesis, I designed, simulated, and implemented a novel optical pulse generation system which is shown to be able to generate exceptionally short optical pulses in the mid-infrared, tunable from 2-4psm with pulse widths as low as 1.5 optical cycles at 3.5pum (18fs). Energies as high a 1pAJ were achieved, representing a peak power of roughly 100MW, at a 1kHz repetition rate, with excellent beam quality. The system was based on adiabatic difference frequency generation in an aperiodically polled lithium niobate crystal of an amplified, mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser system.