High efficiency, high energy, CEP-stabilized infrared optical parametric amplifier

Abstract

A high efficiency, tunable, carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) stabilized near-infrared optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is demonstrated with just a single BBO crystal. A white-light continuum produced by a CEP-stabilized laser is seeded into the two stages of the type II OPA system. We achieved a pump-to-signal conversion efficiency of 34% with a single nonlinear crystal. To our knowledge this is the highest conversion efficiency reported in broadband optical parametric amplification, using the two stages. This work demonstrates a compact way to for tunable femtosecond pulses with CEP stabilization.

Stabilization of isolated attosecond pulse by controlling the emission time of high-order harmonics

“…The wavelength of the fundamental field ω 0 is fixed at 800 nm. The wavelengths of the two control fields are longer than that of the fundamental field and are tuned in the near-infrared regime, which can be achieved by optical parametric amplification (OPA) or optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) technology [32,33].…”

Recognising recent advances in photonics: the JOPT Highlights of 2014

“…D Giovannini et al provide a simple demonstration that the dip in the Hong−Ou−Mandel experiment is caused, not by interference between photons, but rather by interference between probability amplitudes [3]. Weijun Ling et al demonstrate a compact way to form tunable femtosecond pulses with carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) stabilization with a high efficiency near-infrared optical parametric amplifier using just a single BBO crystal [4]. And finally, E Schaub et al report the design and first implementation of an active polarimetric imaging system based on the recently introduced concept of polarimetric sensing by orthogonality breaking [5].…”

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in chalcogenides

“…This means that none of the commercially available femtosecond pump sources based on Tm that operate around 2 µm could be used and even the latest pulsed fiber lasers based on Er or Ho operating around 3 µm would not allow direct pumping in the anomalous dispersion regime. Some of the options for longer-wavelength short-pulse MIR pumps include the synchronously-pumped OPOs [151,152], OPAs [153,154], and optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs) [155]. OPCPAs basically replace the laser amplifier with an OPA in chirped pulse amplification (CPA) scheme and still require a two-stage setup involving a stretcher and a compressor [156], thus are more complicated than the former two approaches.…”