Sub-20-fs tunable pulses in the visible from an 82-MHz optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

We have produced pulses tunable in the 590-666-nm range, with durations down to 13 fs, using an 82-MHz Ti:sapphire second-harmonic-pumped, high-bandwidth, beta-barium borate optical parametric oscillator in a fused-silica prism group-delay-dispersion-compensated, six-mirror folded ring cavity.

Ultra-broadband near-infrared pulse generation by noncollinear OPA with angular dispersion compensation

“…Since the amplification bandwidth only depends on the phase matching between the seed and the pump beams in a fixed nonlinear crystal, amplification can occur over a very large bandwidth. If noncollinear geometry is chosen, this phase-matching bandwidth can be extended even further [3,5]; this is often referred to as noncollinear optical parametric amplification (NOPA).…”

“…6 the resulting pulse duration is shown as a function of angular chirp in the beam. We have assumed 6 Effect of angular dispersion on the pulse duration in the focus according to (3). 'A' indicates the case of 0.4 μrad/nm residual angular chirp with the 300 lines/mm grating, 'B' corresponds to the case reported in [23] using a grating with 600 lines/mm.…”

“…However, the pulse duration of such pulses is limited by the laser material to a few tens of femtoseconds. In recent years the technique of optical parametric amplification (OPA), which does not suffer from this limitation and allows for very large amplification bandwidths, has opened up a new path towards generating ultra-high-power, few-cycle laser pulses [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. High pulse energies can be obtained when combining the OPA technique with the CPA scheme (OPCPA), as first proposed by Dubietis et al [16].…”

Ultrabroadband near-infrared pulse generation by noncollinear OPA with angular dispersion compensation

“…Since the amplification bandwidth only depends on the phase matching between the seed and the pump beams in a fixed nonlinear crystal, amplification can occur over a very large bandwidth. If noncollinear geometry is chosen, this phase-matching bandwidth can be extended even further [2,4]. In addition to an ultrabroadband amplified seed pulse this results in an angularly dispersed idler beam, which is schematically shown in Fig.…”

“…Therefore the accessible peak intensities of the produced pulses are confined well below the level needed for the investigation of high-field laser-matter interaction phenomena. However, in recent years the technique of optical parametric amplification (OPA), which does not suffer from this limitation and allows for very large amplification bandwidths, has opened up a new path towards generating ultrahigh-power, few-cycle laser pulses [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The OPA technology can be combined with CPA, allowing for high pulse energies by amplifying a temporally stretched pulse and subsequent compression.…”