Generation of sub-50-fs pulses in the near infrared by optical parametric amplifiers based on BIBO crystals

800-nm pumped BIBO OPAs using Type-I and Type-II phase-matching are investigated and compared for achieving sub-50-fs pulses in the NIR. The OPAs achieve their shortest pulse durations of 19.8fs and 41.3fs, respectively, at 1.8μm.