Phase stability of terawatt-class ultrabroadband parametric amplification.

The phase stability of broadband (280 nm bandwidth) terawatt-class parametric amplification was measured, for the first time to our knowledge, with a combination of spatial and spectral interferometry. Measurements at four different wavelengths from 750 to 900 nm were performed in combination with numerical modeling. The phase stability is better than 1/23 rms of an optical cycle for all the measured wavelengths, depending on the phase-matching conditions in the amplifier.

A source of 2 terawatt, 2.7 cycle laser pulses based on noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification.

We demonstrate a noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier system that produces 7.6 fs pulses with a peak power of 2 terawatt at 30 Hz repetition rate. Using an ultra-broadband Ti:Sapphire seed oscillator and grating-based stretching and compression combined with an LCD phase-shaper, we amplify a 310 nm wide spectrum with a total gain of 3x10(7), and compress it within 5% of its Fourier limit. The total integrated parametric fluorescence is kept below 0.2%, leading to a pre-pulse contrast of 2 x10(-8) on picosecond timescales.

High-power parametric amplification of 11.8-fs laser pulses with carrier-envelope phase control.

Phase-stable parametric chirped-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses from a carrier-envelope phase-stabilized mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator (11.0 fs) to 0.25 mJ/pulse at 1 kHz is demonstrated. Compression with a grating compressor and a LCD shaper yields near-Fourier-limited 11.8-fs pulses with an energy of 0.12 mJ. The amplifier is pumped by 532-nm pulses from a synchronized mode-locked laser, Nd:YAG amplifier system. This approach is shown to be promising for the next generation of ultrafast amplifiers aimed at producing terawatt-level phase-controlled few-cycle laser pulses.

Generation of few-cycle terawatt light pulses using optical parametric chirped pulse amplification.

We demonstrate the generation of 9.8+/-0.3 fs laser pulses with a peak power exceeding one terawatt at 30 Hz repetition rate, using optical parametric chirped pulse amplification. The amplifier is pumped by 140 mJ, 60 ps pulses at 532 nm, and amplifies seed pulses from a Ti:Sapphire oscillator to 23 mJ/pulse, resulting in 10.5 mJ/pulse after compression while amplified fluorescence is kept below 1%. We employ grating-based stretching and compression in combination with an LCD phase-shaper, allowing compression close to the Fourier limit of 9.3 fs.