Excess quantum noise in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

Abstract

Noise evolution in an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) differs essentially from that of an optical parametric or a conventional laser amplifier, in that an incoherent pedestal is produced by superfluorescence that can overwhelm the signal under strong saturation. Using a model for the nonlinear dynamics consistent with quantum mechanics, we numerically study the evolution of excess noise in an OPCPA. The observed dynamics explain the macroscopic characteristics seen previously in experiments in the practically important saturation regime. References and links1. A. Dubietis, G. Jonusauskas, and A. Piskarskas, "Powerful femtosecond pulse generation by chirped and stretched pulse parametric amplification in BBO crystal," Opt. Commun. 88(4-6), 437-440 (1992 2921-2923 (2005). 17. I. N. Ross, P. Matousek, M. Towrie, A. J. Langley, and J. L. Collier, "The prospects for ultrashort pulse duration and ultrahigh intensity using optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers," Opt. Commun. 144(1-3), 125-133 (1997). 18. F. Tavella, K. Schmid, N. Ishii, A. Marcinkevičius, L. Veisz, and F. Krausz, "High-dynamic range pulse-contrast measurements of a broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier," Appl. Phys. B 81(6), 753-756 (2005 917-925 (1992). 26. F. X. Kaertner and P. Russer, "Generation of squeezed microwave states by a dc-pumped degenerate parametricJosephson junction oscillator," Phys. Rev. A 42(9), 5601-5612 (1990). 27. F. X. Kärtner, T. Langer, Ch. Ginzel, and A. Schenzle, "Input-output analysis of nonlinear dissipative quantum systems in the Fokker-Planck approximation," Phys. Rev. A 45(5), 3228-3241 (1992). 28. P. D. Drummond, "Quantum optical tunneling: A representation-free theory valid near the state-equation turning points," Phys. Rev. A 33(6), 4462-4464 (1986).

Fully efficient adiabatic frequency conversion of broadband Ti:sapphire oscillator pulses

“…The seed energy in these systems is only a few pJ, less than 1% of the Ti:S power. This has practical consequences since the low seed energy in these high-gain amplifiers is the root of severe superfluorescence noise contamination, effectively limiting the overall amplifier gain [5].In this letter, we report near-100% conversion of a broadband Ti:S oscillator band to the mid-IR using the adiabatic DFG technique [6], thus proving the principle of complete Landau-Zener (LZ) adiabatic transfer in nonlinear optical wave mixing. The complete conversion succeeds for the full temporal and spatial extents of the Ti:S beam.…”

“…The seed energy in these systems is only a few pJ, less than 1% of the Ti:S power. This has practical consequences since the low seed energy in these high-gain amplifiers is the root of severe superfluorescence noise contamination, effectively limiting the overall amplifier gain [5].…”

Output temporal contrast simulation of a large aperture high power short pulse laser system

“…The European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) has designed a 25 PW, 10 25 W cm −2 single laser beamline (ILE) [2] , in which the high temporal contrast required by pre-plasma-free interactions [3] will be one of the major challenges. Various factors resulting in temporal contrast degradation have been analyzed and verified, such as gain saturation [4] , asymmetric spectral clipping [5] , self-phase modulation [6] , amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the CPA system [7] and pump distortion-induced noise (PDN) [8] , surface-reflection-initiated pre-pulses [9] and parametric fluorescence (PF) [10] in the OPCPA system, etc.…”

Pulse Distortion in Saturated Fiber Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

“…The amplified signal distortion can be investigated operating in the nonlinear gain regime to highlight the effect of the parametric gain response. Recent numerical studies have reported the appearance of pulse distortion in the form of pedestals around the recompressed signal in the nonlinear gain regime [5][6]. In this work, we have experimentally compared FOPCPA for differently chirped pulses under transition from linear to saturated gain regime and investigated the signal distortion after recompression.…”