Benjamin Webb

Concepts, performance review, and prospects of table-top, few-cycle optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

Abstract. More than 20 years after the first presentation of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA), the technology has matured as a powerful technique to produce high-intensity, few-cycle, and ultrashort laser pulses. The output characteristics of these systems cover a wide range of center wavelengths, pulse energies, and average powers. The current record performance of table-top, few-cycle OPCPA systems are 16 TW peak power and 22 W average power, which show that OPCPA is able to directly compete with Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification-based systems as source for intense optical pulses. Here, we review the concepts of OPCPA and present the current state-of-the art performance level for several systems reported in the literature. To date, the performance of these systems is most generally limited by the employed pump laser. Thus, we present a comprehensive review on the recent progress in high-energy, high-average-power, picosecond laser systems, which provide improved performance relative to OPCPA pump lasers employed to date. From here, the impact of these novel pump lasers on table-top, few-cycle OPCPA is detailed and the prospects for next-generation OPCPA systems are discussed.

Multi-kHz, multi-mJ, phase stabilized, OPCPA amplifier system

The pump beam generation line of an optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) system providing few-cycle pulses with energy in the millijoule range at repetition rates up to 10 kHz is presented. The overall design of the system is briefly discussed including stretching-compressing and parametric amplification. The main emphasis is on the requirements on the pump beam for successful pumping of a parametric amplifier. Aspects of the design of the multistage hybrid amplifier line are detailed and performances of each stage are presented.

Divided-pulse amplification to the joule level.

Divided-pulse amplification (DPA) has proven to be a valuable tool in scaling the peak power of diode-pumped ytterbium-doped amplifiers to beyond the single-pulse threshold for parasitic nonlinear effects. DPA enables the amplification of picosecond pulses in solid-state amplifiers with limited bandwidth beyond the single-pulse damage threshold. In this Letter, we demonstrate DPA of picosecond pulses in a flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, yielding a combined pulse energy of 167 mJ.

Integrated pulse stretchers for high-energy CPA and OPCPA systems

Pulse stretchers are critical components in chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and optical parametric CPA (OPCPA) laser systems. In CPA systems, pulse stretching and compression is typical accomplished using bulk diffraction gratings; however integrated devices such volume or fiber Bragg gratings can provide similar optical performance with significantly smaller footprint and simplified alignment. In this work, we discuss the use of such integrated devices to stretch a 100 fs pulse to 400 ps with customized third order dispersion for use in a multi-TW Ti:Sapphire system as well as integrated optics to control the pulse duration in pump lasers for OPCPA systems.

Compact 10 TW laser to generate multi-filament arrays

The design and construction of a compact 10 TW Ti:sapphire CPA system for the generation of filament arrays is presented. The design and implementation challenges are discussed, in particular the optimization of beam quality.

Picosecond DPSS laser technology for OPCPA pumping

We present the design and challenges of a diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) system to amplify picosecond pulses to high pulse energies and high average powers. We discuss our implemented solutions to mitigate thermal effects and present the obtained performance of the picosecond pulse amplification at the multi-10-MW level. Our here presented picosecond DPSS laser is well suited for pumping an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system. Several laser technologies have been employed to pump OPCPA systems and we show how our DPSS system compares in performance to the other approaches.

Energy-scaling of DPSS picosecond amplifiers for OPCPA pumping

High power, high energy, picosecond amplifier systems are required for the next generation of OPCPA systems. We address energy scaling and challenges of thermal loading and depolarization in high repetition rate amplifiers for OPCPA pumping.

DPSS Picosecond Energy Scaling for OPCPA Pumping

Energy scaling of a picosecond amplifier system for next generation OPCPA systems introduces several challenges. Mitigation of thermal loading and depolarization in high power amplifiers are addressed for DPSS, picosecond, high energy amplifier systems.