Fiber-amplifier-pumped, 1-MHz, 1-µJ, 21-µm, femtosecond OPA with chirped-pulse DFG front-end
High-repetition-rate, high-power, few-cycle mid-infrared lasers with carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization are ideal driving sources for studying strong-field nonlinear processes, such as strong-field driven electron emission, solid-state high-harmonic generation, and nonlinear microscopy. Here, we report on a 1-MHz, 1-μJ, femtosecond, 2.1-µm optical parametric amplifier (OPA), pumped by a Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplifier (CPA) and seeded by a chirped-pulse difference-frequency generation (DFG) front-end providing positively chirped 2.1-μm signal pulses. The home-built multi-stage 1030-nm Yb-doped fiber CPA pump laser generates >55-μJ near-transform-limited (245-fs) pulses at 1 MHz repetition rate using a novel 4-pass all-fiber stretcher/front-end for careful dispersion/spectral management. The chirped-pulse DFG scheme is achieved by wave-mixing the 1030 nm pump pulse with a dispersive wave at 645–735 nm generated in a photonic crystal fiber, allowing passive CEP stability of the 2.1-µm pulses. The 2.1-μm pulse is amplified to 1 μJ in a two-stage dispersion-managed optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with a pump energy of ~21 μJ resulting in 95-fs pulses with nice beam profile without additional pulse compression. Multi-μJ, sub-30 fs pulses can be obtained at full pump energy and additional dispersion compensation. The fiber-amplifier-based mid-infrared OPA can be directly applied to high-harmonic generation in solids and optical-field-driven nanophotonic devices and is a compact front-end for a future high-power, high-repetition-rate, long wavelengths CEP-stabilized source for gas-phase high-order harmonic generation.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Helmholtz Association; European Research Council (ERC); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); China Scholarship Council (CSC); German Research Foundation (DFG)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018378; 609920
- OSTI ID:
- 1499837
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1612961
- Journal Information:
- Optics Express, Journal Name: Optics Express Vol. 27 Journal Issue: 6; ISSN 1094-4087
- Publisher:
- Optical Society of America (OSA)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Similar Records
Integrated 2.0 μm femtosecond laser amplifier for advanced accelerator applications
Amplification of dissipative solitons with a polarisation-maintaining tapered fibre amplifier