Broadband and tunable mid-infrared laser source based on a transversal array of chirped filaments

A scheme for the generation of broadband and tunable mid-infrared pulses based on two-color filamentation in air is presented. The mid-infrared pulses, spanning the spectral region between 4 and 6.5 μm, result from a third-order nonlinear interaction between two short pulses, one at 800 nm and the other at 437 nm. The latter was created by frequency doubling a Raman-shifted pulse at 873 nm amplified in a chirped-pulse Raman amplifier. Tunability of this mid-infrared laser source was provided by introducing spatial chirp across the fundamental pulse profile which created a transversal array of chirped filaments.