Broadband stimulated Raman backscattering

Broadband amplification employing stimulated Raman backscattering is demonstrated. Using seed pulses with a bandwidth of about 200 nm, we study the amplification in a wide spectral range in a single laser shot. With chirped pump pulses and a Ne gas jet, we observed under optimized conditions, amplification in a range of about 80 nm, which is sufficient to support the amplification of sub-20 fs pulses. This broad amplification range is also in excellent agreement with PIC simulations. The conversion efficiency is at certain wavelengths as high as 1.2% and was measured to be better than 6 × 10 −3 on average.