Stimulated Raman amplification of femtosecond pulses in hydrogen gas

Abstract
We report efficient amplification of weak femtosecond supercontinuum pulses by a stimulated Raman scattering process in pressurized H2 gas excited with 350-fs-duration frequency-doubled pulses from a regenerative-amplified Ti:sapphire laser. An amplification factor of 109 is obtained at the wavelength of 465 nm for seed pulses produced by supercontinuum generation in glass.