Optical parametric amplification seeded by four-wave mixing in photonic crystal fibers

We report a mid-infrared (MIR) source emitting at 3 mu m, employing a novel chi((3))/chi((2)) cascaded nonlinear conversion architecture. Picosecond pulses from a 1.064 mu m mode-locked Yb:fiber pump laser are used to generate 1.65 mu m signal pulses through chi((3)) based four-wave mixing in photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The output of the PCF is then directly focused into a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal to generate idler radiation around 3 mu m through chi((2)) based three-wave mixing between the pump and signal pulses.