A CW seeded femtosecond optical parametric amplifier, a compromise between OPG/OPA and strongly seeded OPA configurations, has been demonstrated. An independent CW Nd︰YAG laser with sub-watt power decreases the pump threshold of the OPA and improves the stability of the output pulses considerably. Output signal energies as high as 30 μJ with pulse durations less than 250 fs near 1 μm are reported from this two-stage device.
