Broadly tunable parametric line emission from β-barium borate on pumping with picosecond pulses

Tunable line emission (LE) over a large wavelength region (340–980 nm) is obtained by pumping thick crystals of β-barium borate (BBO) with picosecond pulses at 532 nm. Phenomena of group velocity dispersion, diffraction and phase matching take place simultaneously such that the radiation shows specific features that are characteristic of (i) strongly coupled fundamental and harmonic fields, (ii) amplified phase matched superfluorescence, (iii) conical emission and (iv) four wave mixing.