Title :
Towards terawatt-power optical parametric chirped pulse amplification of phase-controlled sub-10 fs laser pulses
Author :
Zinkstok, R. Th ; Witte, S. ; Hogervorst, W. ; Eikema, K.S.E.
Author_Institution :
Atomic, Molecular & Laser Phys. Group, Vrije Univ., Amsterdam, Netherlands
Abstract :
We have generated pulses with a spectral bandwidth corresponding to a Fourier-limit of 8.7 fs. The power amplifier stage, which is presently under construction, has been designed to further amplify the pulses to ∼20mJ/pulse. This should lead to >10 mJ, sub-10 fs pulses after compression, corresponding to a peak power exceeding one terawatt, while maintaining carrier-envelope phase control. An upgrade of our NOPCPA system is in progress, with the aim to generate sub-10 pulses with a terawatt peak power and a fully controlled electromagnetic field evolution. The seed pulses for the NOPCPA are provided by a 11 fs mode-locked Ti:Sapphire oscillator laser with a tightly controlled 75 MHz repetition frequency and φCE. Before amplification the pulses are sent through a combined grating stretcher/LCDshaper setup to stretch the pulses and control the spectral phase.
Keywords :
laser mode locking; optical parametric amplifiers; optical pulse compression; optical pulse generation; sapphire; solid lasers; titanium; 11 fs; 8.7 fs; LCD- shaper setup; NOPCPA system; carrier-envelope phase control; combined grating stretcher; mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator laser; phase-controlled sub-10 fs laser pulse generation; power amplifier stage; repetition frequency; terawatt-power optical parametric chirped pulse amplification; Bandwidth; Chirp; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Optical variables control; Power amplifiers; Pulse amplifiers; Stimulated emission;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe, 2005. CLEO/Europe. 2005 Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8974-3
DOI :
10.1109/CLEOE.2005.1568181