Flexible chirp-free probe pulse amplification for kHz fs/ps rotational CARS

The sensitivity of high-repetition-rate hybrid femtosecond/picosecond (fs/ps) rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (RCARS) is strongly influenced by the energy available for the ps probe pulse. In this work, a high-energy ps probe pulse that is time-synchronized with the fs pump/Stokes pulse is achieved by using a diode-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier seeded at 1064.4 nm by the output of a fs optical parametric amplifier. Nearly...