A multi-milliJoule femtosecond Raman laser emitting at 1.28 um
  We report on the generation of broadband, high-energy femtosecond pulses centered at 1.28 um by stimulated Raman scattering in pressurized hydrogen cell. Stimulated Raman scattering is performed by two chirped and delayed pulses originating from a multi-mJ Ti:Sapphire amplifier. The Stokes pulse carries energy of 4.4 mJ and is recompressed down to 66 fs by reflective grating pair. We characterized the short-wavelength mid-infrared source in view of energy stability, beam profile and conversion efficiency at a repetition rate of 100 Hz and 10 Hz. The demonstrated laser will benefit intense THz generation applications from highly nonlinear organic crystals. 
Carlo Vicario, Mostafa Shalaby, Aleksandr Konyashchenko, Leonid Losev,   and Christoph P. Hauri
physics.optics