Dual-chirped optical parametric amplification for generating high-power infrared pulses

Abstract

We propose and calculate a novel OPA method for obtaining an ultrafast high-power infrared pulse source, called dual-chirped OPA (DC-OPA), based on a Ti:sapphire laser system in a collinear configuration. By chirping both pump and seed pulses in an optimized way, high-energy pump pulses can be utilized for a DC-OPA process without exceeding the damage threshold of BBO crystals, and broadband signal and idler pulses can be generated with a total conversion efficiency approaching 40%. Furthermore, the few-cycle idler pulses with a passively stabilized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) can be generated by the difference frequency generation (DFG) process. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.