We present results showing that, when it is used as a photodetector, a light-emitting diode (LED) has a power-dependent response that can be used for sensitive detection and characterization of picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses. A characterization of a typical LED is presented at 800 nm, and we demonstrate how this effect can be used to construct an extremely compact novel autocorrelator based on a Wollaston prism.

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We describe configurations of a novel synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator based on the crystal RbTiOAsO(4) and operating with a signal-pulse-repetition frequency as high as 344 MHz. Average signal powers as high as 600 mW and pulse durations of 78 fs are demonstrated at a wavelength of 1.25 microm, and a characterization of the signal output using frequency-resolved optical gating implies asymmetric near-sech(2)(t) intensity-profile pulses with significant amounts of spectral cubic phase.

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