Demonstration of a petawatt-scale optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on yttrium calcium oxyborate

Abstract

As optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) has been widely adopted for the generation of extreme intensity laser sources, nonlinear crystals of large aperture are demanded for high energy amplifiers. Yttrium calcium oxyborate (YCa 4 O(BO 3 ) 3 , YCOB) is capable to be grown with aperture exceeding hundred millimeters, which makes it possible for application in systems of petawatt scale. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge, an ultrabroadband non-collinear optical parametric amplifier with YCOB for petawatt scale compressed pulse generation at 800 nm. Based on SG-Ⅱ 5PW facility, amplified signal energy of ~40 J was achieved and pump-to-signal conversion efficiency was up to 42.3%.A gain bandwidth of 87 nm was realized and supported compressed pulse duration of 22.3

Theoretical analysis of frequency modulation-to-amplitude modulation on the final optics and target of the SG II-Up laser facility

“…Dispersion is the primary cause of FM-to-AM conversion in fiber front-end systems, including GVD [ 8 , 22 ] and PMD [ 9 , 10 ] . This dispersion leads to phase-mismatch type modulation.…”

A Review of Optical Parametric Amplification at the Vulcan Laser Facility

“…The scaling of crystal sizes has allowed a new era of Petawatt class lasers based solely on OPCPA to start to emerge [23][24][25][26][27], and while the drive to the highest average power is dominated by Ti:Sapph systems [28][29][30], the possibility for pushing the highest peak power (and higher intensities on targets) is only currently feasible through OPCPA, as shown in Figure 1. Recently, the drive to high-peak-power OPCPA is being simulated and developed in various facilities allowing 10s PW, 100s PW, and even EWs [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. While there is growing demand for scaling LBO crystals [13,39,40], this is currently only possible with the largest available crystals: deuterated Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate (DKDP), which was first found to be a promising OPCPA candidate in 2005 [41], harbouring broadband amplification from frequency-doubled Nedodymium-doped Yttrium Lithium Fluoride (Nd:YLF) lasers [42].…”

“…While there is growing demand for scaling LBO crystals [13,39,40], this is currently only possible with the largest available crystals: deuterated Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate (DKDP), which was first found to be a promising OPCPA candidate in 2005 [41], harbouring broadband amplification from frequency-doubled Nedodymium-doped Yttrium Lithium Fluoride (Nd:YLF) lasers [42]. There has also been a growing interest in Petawatt-scaling using Yttrium Calcium Oxoborate (YCOB) [37,43], however these are not typical due to the limited number of suppliers. Quasi OPCPA technology has recently been investigated, wherein the idler wave is absorbed allowing for a more efficient pump-to-signal conversion ratio, however this becomes less feasible when scaling to larger-aperture crystals [45].…”