Parametric amplification of 100 fs mid-infrared pulses in ZnGeP2 driven by a Ho:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier.

We report on the parametric generation of 100 fs sub-6-cycle 40 µJ pulses with the center wavelength at 5.2 µm using a 1 ps 2.1 µm pump laser and a dispersion management scheme based on bulk material. Our optically synchronized amplifier chain consists of a Ho:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier and white-light-seeded optical parametric amplifiers providing simultaneous passive carrier-envelope phase locking of three ultrashort longwave pulses at the pump, signal, and idler wavelengths corresponding, respectively, to 2.1, 3.5, and 5.2 µm. We also demonstrate bandwidth enhancement and efficient control over nonlinear spectral phase in the regime of cascaded χ2 nonlinearity in ZnGeP2.