Parametric Amplification and Phase Control of Few-Cycle Light Pulses

Abstract

We have investigated several different regimes of seeded parametric amplification. The choice of the seed configuration determines whether the CEP of the idler pulses becomes fixed or, alternatively, it drifts while the idler and signal pulses remain phase-locked. In our opinion, an OPA of the former kind (phasestabilizing) can be effectively employed in a sequence of femtosecond laser amplifiers for production of intense CEP-locked pulses, thus dispensing with intricate schemes of active CEP control. On the other hand, phase-repeating OPAs offer a relatively easy way to synthesize single-cycle pulses and, additionally, can be used for accurate determination of the phase offset for each individual laser shot. We believe that this work provides a new insight into the experimental capabilities of various OPA systems and opens attractive possibilities for their use in field-sensitive applications of nonlinear optics.