We report efficient generation of tunable femtosecond pulses in the near IR using a two stage, white-light seeded, collinear, femtosecond optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The OPA, based on BiB3O6 crystal in both stages and pumped at 807 nm by a 1 kHz Ti:sapphire laser amplifier, provides sub- 30 fs signal pulses after compression with energies exceeding 200 μJ , which corresponds to fivefold pulse shortening and ∼30% internal conversion efficiency in the second stage considering 150 fs pump pulses with 1.5 mJ energy. The corresponding idler pulses with more than 100 μJ have sub- 60 fs duration without compression. The first stage alone is capable of producing sub- 20 fs pulses near 1400 nm at the microjoule level without using any compression
