I. Tamer,
M. Hellwing,
Y. Azamoum,
M. Hornung,
S. Keppler,
F. Schorcht,
J. Hein,
and M. Kaluza
Few-cycle fs-pumped NOPA with passive ultrabroadband spectral shaping
Opt. Express, 28 :19034 ( 2020)
Few-cycle fs-pumped NOPA with passive ultrabroadband spectral shaping
Opt. Express, 28 :19034 ( 2020)
Abstract:
A compact, femtosecond-pumped noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) is presented with a passive spectral shaping technique, employed to produce a flat-top-like ultrabroadband output spectrum. The NOPA is pumped by a dedicated 2 mJ, 120 fs Yb3+- based CPA system, which generates both the second harmonic pump pulse and white light supercontinuum as the signal pulse. A chirped mirror pair pre-compensates the material GVD within the optical path of the signal pulse to produce a near-FTL pulse duration at the OPA crystal output. By optimizing both the pump/signal cross angle and the pump/signal delay, the 40 cm × 40 cm footprint, single-pass, fs-pumped, direct NOPA (non-NOPCPA) system generates a record 20 μJ, 11 fs pulses at 820 nm central wavelength with a bandwidth of 230 nm FWHM, to be used as an ultrashort optical probe pulse for relativistic laser-plasma interactions at the petawatt-class POLARIS laser system.