Efficient Generation of Spectrum-Manipulated Few-Cycle Laser Pulses through Cascaded Dual-Chirped OPA

The cascaded dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) is presented for efficient generation of few-cycle infrared (IR) laser pulses. The input pulses are strategically chirped to optimize the phase-matching bandwidth in each nonlinear crystal, and four regions of the signal spectrum are amplified in cascaded crystals with different cutting angles, enabling flexible manipulation of the output spectrum. Broadband gain and high conversion efficiency are simultaneously achieved owing to the cascaded-crystal arrangement, the signal pulse duration of 4.2 cycles is obtained with 11.7-mJ pulse energy, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 39.0%. The proposed scheme offers a robust and simple approach to pushing the phase-matching bandwidth limits introduced by the nonlinear crystal, which manifests great prospect in various researches involving ultrafast optics and strong-field physics.

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Design and experimental demonstration of a high conversion efficiency OPCPA pre-amplifier for petawatt laser facility

High Power Laser Science and Engineering ◽

10.1017/hpl.2018.52 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Xiao Liang ◽

Xinglong Xie ◽

Jun Kang ◽

Qingwei Yang ◽

Hui Wei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conversion Efficiency ◽

Nonlinear Crystal ◽

Beam Quality ◽

Pump Energy ◽

High Conversion ◽

Signal Pulse ◽

High Conversion Efficiency ◽

Optical Parametric ◽

Good Beam Quality ◽

Laser Facility

We present the design and experiment of a broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) which provides high conversion efficiency and good beam quality at 808 nm wavelength. Using a three-dimensional spatial and temporal numerical model, several design considerations necessary to achieve high conversion efficiency, good beam quality and good output stability are discussed. To improve the conversion efficiency and broaden the amplified signal bandwidth simultaneously, the nonlinear crystal length and OPCPA parameters are analyzed and optimized with the concept of dissipating amplified idler between optical parametric amplification (OPA) of two crystals configuration. In the experiment, an amplifier consisting of two OPCPA stages of ‘L’ type configuration was demonstrated by using the optimized parameters. An amplified signal energy of 160 mJ was achieved with a total pump-to-signal efficiency of 35% (43% efficiency for the OPCPA stage 2). The output bandwidth of signal pulse reached 80 nm and the signal pulse was compressed to 24 fs. The energy stability reached 1.67% RMS at 3% pump energy variation. The optimized OPCPA amplifier operates at a repetition rate of 1 Hz and is used as a front-end injection for the main amplifier of SG-II 5PW laser facility.

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Compression of TW class laser pulses in a planar hollow waveguide for applications in strong-field physics

The European Physical Journal D ◽

10.1140/epjd/e2014-50558-7 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 68 (12) ◽

Author(s):

Amélie Jarnac ◽

Fernando Brizuela ◽

Christoph M. Heyl ◽

Piotr Rudawski ◽

Filippo Campi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Strong Field ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Hollow Waveguide ◽

Strong Field Physics

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Potential of Sub-THz-Wave Generation in Li2B4O7 Nonlinear Crystal at Room and Cryogenic Temperatures

Crystals ◽

10.3390/cryst11111321 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 1321

Author(s):

Dmitry Ezhov ◽

Snezhana Turgeneva ◽

Nazar Nikolaev ◽

Alexander Mamrashev ◽

Sergei Mikerin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nonlinear Crystal ◽

Damage Threshold ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Ultrashort Laser Pulses ◽

Phase Matching ◽

Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽

Mixing Processes ◽

Noticeable Increase ◽

Thz Range ◽

Down Conversion

Due to their high optical damage threshold, borate crystals can be used for the efficient nonlinear down-conversion of terawatt laser radiation into the terahertz (THz) frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this work, we carried out a thorough study of the terahertz optical properties of the lithium tetraborate crystal (Li2B4O7; LB4) at 295 and 77 K. Approximating the terahertz refractive index in the form of Sellmeier’s equations, we assessed the possibility of converting the radiation of widespread high-power laser sources with wavelengths of 1064 and 800 nm, as well as their second and third harmonics, into the THz range. It was found that four out of eight types of three-wave mixing processes are possible. The conditions for collinear phase matching were fulfilled only for the o − e → o type of interaction, while cooling the crystal to 77 K did not practically affect the phase-matching curves. However, a noticeable increase of birefringence in the THz range with cooling (from 0.12 to 0.16) led to an increase in the coherence length for o − o → e and e − e → e types of interaction, which are potentially attractive for the down-conversion of ultrashort laser pulses.

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Enhancement of the Second-Harmonic Phase-Matching Bandwidth and Conversion Efficiency by Control of the Temperature Distribution along a Nonlinear Crystal

Lasers, Sources, and Related Photonic Devices ◽

10.1364/assp.2012.aw4a.17 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Julijanas Zeludevicius ◽

Kestutis Regelskis ◽

Vytautas Vosylius ◽

Nikolajus Gavrilinas ◽

Gediminas Raciukaitis

Keyword(s):

Temperature Distribution ◽

Conversion Efficiency ◽

Second Harmonic ◽

Nonlinear Crystal ◽

Phase Matching ◽

Harmonic Phase

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From strong-field physics in and at nanoscale matter to photonics-based laser accelerators

EPJ Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/epjconf/201920508009 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 205 ◽

pp. 08009

Author(s):

Martin Kozák ◽

Takuya Higuchi ◽

Joshua McNeur ◽

Roy Shiloh ◽

Christian Heide ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Strong Field ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Ultrashort Laser Pulses ◽

Free Electrons ◽

Strong Field Physics ◽

Laser Acceleration ◽

Laser Accelerators ◽

Ultrashort Laser

New ways of controlling quasi-free and free electrons by means of phase-controlled ultrashort laser pulses are demonstrated: from strong-field physics in the conducting 2-d material graphene and at the surface of nanostructures, to laser acceleration of free electrons with a nanophotonic structure, and the demonstration of the longitudinal Kapitza-Dirac effect.

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Light amplification by seeded Kerr instability

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aaq0053 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 359 (6376) ◽

pp. 673-675 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

G. Vampa ◽

T. J. Hammond ◽

M. Nesrallah ◽

A. Yu. Naumov ◽

P. B. Corkum ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Femtosecond Laser ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Strong Field ◽

Nonlinear Crystal ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Momentum Conservation ◽

Femtosecond Laser Pulses ◽

Light Amplification ◽

Lasing Medium ◽

Infrared Frequencies

Amplification of femtosecond laser pulses typically requires a lasing medium or a nonlinear crystal. In either case, the chemical properties of the lasing medium or the momentum conservation in the nonlinear crystal constrain the frequency and the bandwidth of the amplified pulses. We demonstrate high gain amplification (greater than 1000) of widely tunable (0.5 to 2.2 micrometers) and short (less than 60 femtosecond) laser pulses, up to intensities of 1 terawatt per square centimeter, by seeding the modulation instability in an Y3Al5O12 crystal pumped by femtosecond near-infrared pulses. Our method avoids constraints related to doping and phase matching and therefore can occur in a wider pool of glasses and crystals even at far-infrared frequencies and for single-cycle pulses. Such amplified pulses are ideal to study strong-field processes in solids and highly excited states in gases.

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Coherent control at gold needle tips approaching the strong-field regime

Nanophotonics ◽

10.1515/nanoph-2021-0242 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Philip Dienstbier ◽

Timo Paschen ◽

Peter Hommelhoff

Keyword(s):

Relative Phase ◽

Coherent Control ◽

Strong Field ◽

Second Harmonic ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Energy Spectra ◽

Fundamental Field ◽

Plasmonic Material ◽

Control Scheme ◽

Strong Field Physics

Abstract We demonstrate coherent control in photoemission from a gold needle tip using an ω − 2ω field composed of strong few-cycle laser pulses with a nearfield intensity of ∼4 TW/cm2. We obtain the nearfield intensity from electron energy spectra, showing the tell-tale plateau of field-driven electron rescattering at the metal surface induced by the fundamental field. Changing the relative phase between the fundamental field centered at 1560 nm and its second harmonic modulates the total emitted photocurrent with visibilities of up to 80% despite the strong and broadband excitation of the plasmonic material. Our work combines a two-color coherent control scheme and strong-field physics enabled by a nanoplasmonic emitter.

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