Femtosecond Yb:KGW MOPA driven broadband NOPA as a frontend for TW few-cycle pulse systems

Abstract

White light continuum seeded noncollinear optical parametric amplifier driven by Yb:KGW master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system is reported. The demonstrated design provides amplification of broadband pulses at 800 nm up to 20 µJ energy at 1 kHz repetition rate and can be used as simple and reliable frontend source for systems producing high intensity few-cycle pulses. The amplified spectral bandwidth allows for <7 fs pulse durations and preliminary compression of partial spectrum yields sub-10 fs pulse.

Plasmonic mid-infrared third harmonic generation in germanium nanoantennas

“…To excite the resonant antenna structures, we developed a high-power femtosecond laser system 34 based on a regenerative Yb:KGW amplifier with a repetition rate of 50 kHz. The fundamental pulses at a wavelength of 1028 nm with a duration of 250 fs drive a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) 35 that generates broadband pulses tunable between 1050 and 1400 nm. Intense mid-IR pulses are subsequently produced via nonlinear phase-matched difference frequency mixing of the NOPA pulses (pulse energy up to 2.2 µJ) with 36-µJ pulses from the Yb:KGW amplifier in a GaSe crystal 36 .…”

Spatial chirp and angular dispersion dynamics in femtosecond noncollinear OPCPA

“…The experiment was carried out in two-stage NOPA driven by femtosecond Yb:KGW laser system ("PHAROS", Lightcon Ltd.) [5], after second harmonic generation delivering 200 μJ and 300 fs pulses centered at 512 nm. White light continuum, generated in a bulk sapphire and then precompressed in a prism pair compressor, was used as a broadband seed in this setup.…”

“…In these works the presence of the angular dispersion was considered as a consequence of the pulse-front tilting, however, as it was pointed out by Akturk et al [5], the pulse-front tilt and angular dispersion are not equivalent. In general one cannot conclude that the pulse has angular dispersion solely from the pulse-front tilt, which can be also caused by the simultaneous presence of the spatial and temporal chirp.…”

Carrier-envelope phase control of Yb:KGW laser and parametric amplifiers

“…An implementation of different OPA schemes, the methods of non-collinear broadband parametric amplification [11] and chirped pulse parametric amplification [12] allow us to produce pulses with durations down to a few optical cycles [13][14][15][16], generate the octave-spanning spectrum pulses in mid-IR with the central wavelength up to 6 µm [17], and to achieve the peak powers up to the PW-level [18]. The phase-preserving properties of OPAs have been confirmed in different experimental setups [19][20][21][22] and allowed for phase-stable pulse amplification to intensity levels exceeding 1 TW [23].…”