Enhancement of efficiency in femtosecond optical parametric oscillators using group-velocity-matching in long nonlinear crystals

O’Donnell, Callum F.; Kumar, S. Chaitanya; Ebrahim-Zadeh, M.

doi:10.1063/1.5094550

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

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“…Moreover, in some cases, the spectral bandwidth of the pump laser is limited by the availability and costs of dielectric optics [chirped mirrors for optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), diffraction gratings, etc. ], as well as by the spectral acceptance of the nonlinear crystals [29,30]. Finally, spectrally tunable pump lasers are of interest for optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs), which are often based on sophisticated dispersion management of the seed (signal) pulses leading to wavelength-rigid behavior [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectrally tunable high-power Yb:fiber chirped-pulse amplifier

et al. 2022

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Tailoring the properties of the driving laser to the need of applications often requires compromises among laser stability, high peak and average power levels, pulse duration, and spectral bandwidth. For instance, spectroscopy with optical frequency combs in the extreme/visible ultraviolet spectral region requires a high peak power of the near-IR driving laser, and therefore high average power, pulse duration of a few tens of fs, and maximal available spectral bandwidth. Contrarily, the parametric conversion efficiency is higher for pulses with a duration in the 100-fs range due to temporal walk-off and coating limitations. Here we suggest an approach to adjust the spectral characteristics of high-power chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) to the requirements of different nonlinear frequency converters while preserving the low-phase-noise (PN) properties of the system. To achieve spectral tunability, we installed a mechanical spectral shaper in a free-space section of the stretcher of an in-house-developed ytterbium-fiber-based CPA system. The CPA system delivers 100 W of average power at a repetition rate of 132.4 MHz. While gaining control over the spectral properties, we preserve the relative-intensity-noise and PN properties of the system. The high-power CPA can easily be adjusted to deliver either a spectrum ideal for mid-IR light generation (full width at half maximum of ∼ 11 nm , compressed pulse duration of 230 fs) or a spectrum ideal for highly nonlinear processes such as high-harmonic generation ( - 10 dB level of > 50 nm , transform-limited pulse duration of ∼ 65 fs ).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%