Patent ID: 8390921

Claim:
A method for cavity-enhanced optical parametric amplification, comprising: generating seed light pulses having a central seed wavelength, chirping the seed light pulses, and directing the chirped seed light pulses into an enhancement cavity at a full repetition rate, wherein the enhancement cavity defines a closed optical path and includes a nonlinear medium in the optical path; generating pump light pulses having a central pump wavelength, and directing the pump light pulses into the enhancement cavity at the full repetition rate, wherein the nonlinear medium provides phase matching at a wavelength different from the central seed wavelength and different from the central pump wavelength; and synchronizing the generation of the pump light pulses and seed light pulses to pass the chirped seed light pulses through the nonlinear medium simultaneously with the pump light pulses such that the chirped seed light pulses are parametrically amplified in the nonlinear medium to produce an amplified signal pulse and idler pulse.