High-contrast, high-intensity laser pulse generation using a nonlinear preamplifier in a Ti:sapphire laser system

We report a high-contrast, high-intensity Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system that incorporates a nonlinear preamplifier based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). By cooling the Ti:sapphire crystal in the final amplifier down to 77 K, the chirped-pulses are amplified to 2.9 J at a 10 Hz repetition rate without a thermal lensing effect. Pulse compression down to 19 fs duration obtained after amplification indicates a peak power of 80 TW. With the OPCPA, the temporal contrast is significantly improved to better than 7x10(-9) in a few picoseconds interval prior to the main laser pulse.     

Broadband femtosecond OPCPA system driven by the single-shot narrow-band iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA

A two-stage optical parametric amplifier driven by a frequency-tripled beam from the high-energy iodine laser system SOFIA was built. This single-shot Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse-Amplification facility (OPCPA) and the system synchronizing the pump and signal pulses are described in detail. The chirped seed pulse of a Ti:sapphire oscillator running at the central wavelength of 800?nm is amplified in the two-stage (LBO and KDP) optical parametric amplifier over 10⁸ times. The amplified spectral bandwidth of 68?nm corresponds to the pulse duration of 14?fs when a transform-limited pulse is assumed. This implies a compressed pulse of TW power. Systematic gain measurements reveal a good match with the theoretical predictions. Signal and idler beam fluence profiles are presented. The suitability of the iodine photo-dissociation laser as a pump source for the OPCPA technique is thus proved for the first time experimentally. A distinctive feature of the iodine laser is its very narrow gain bandwidth (<0.1?cm^?1) and, therefore, the conventional chirped-pulse amplification technique does not lead to pulse durations at the femtosecond level.     

Development of a high-contrast,high-peak power,Ti:Sapphire/OPCPA laser system

We report on a high-contrast, high-peak power laser system, which combines both conventional laser amplification and optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) techniques. By employing an OPCPA system after a regenerative amplifier, we have enhanced the prepulse contrast by six orders of magnitude. A prepulse contrast of better than 4.4 × 10^?11 has been measured with a high-energy broadband pulse of 24 mJ at a 10 Hz repetition rate from the OPCPA system. With a subsequent four-pass Ti:sapphire amplifier, we have achieved an amplified energy of 279 mJ and an ultrashort recompressed amplified pulse duration of 23.5 fs. We also discuss the basic design aspects and present our preliminary experimental investigations for higher energy operation to a multijoule.     

Broadband, high gain two-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a femtosecond high-power Ti:sapphire laser system

We design a two-stage non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a high-power Ti:sapphire laser system, and numerically analyze the output characteristics of the OPCPA system. We find optimal phase-matching conditions and calculate the parametric gains as a function of pump intensity and interaction length. By constructing a two-stage OPCPA system using two BBO crystals, we obtain 12 mJ output energy corresponding to a high gain of 10⁷, a pulse duration of 37 fs, and a contrast ratio of 5×10⁻⁸.     

0.85-PW, 33-fs Ti:sapphire laser

We have successfully produced a laser pulse with a peak power of 0.85 PW for a pulse duration of 33 fs in a four-stage Ti:sapphire amplifier chain based on chirped-pulse amplification. To our knowledge this result represents the highest peak power pulses yet produced in any Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system.     

Highly efficient optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification based on BiB3O6 and β-BaB2O4 crystals at low pump intensity

We report a very high signal gain of 1.13 × 10⁷ at a low pump intensity of 260 MW/cm² in a two-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA), which is used as a pre-amplifier for a short-pulse front-end Nd: glass high-energy laser system. A signal energy of 0.17 nJ was amplified to 2 mJ with a central wavelength of 1053 nm and a repetition rate of 10 Hz using the OPCPA with a 15 mm-long BBO crystal at optical parametric amplifier (OPA) stage 1 and a 12 mm-long BiBO crystal at OPA stage 2.     

1.5 mJ, 6.4 fs parametric chirped-pulse amplification system at 1 kHz

We demonstrate an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) system with the pulse energy of 1.5 mJ at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The newly developed 100 ps Ti:sapphire pump laser system, which was optically synchronized with OPCPA seed pulses, delivered 10 mJ, 400 nm pump pulses. After three-stage parametric amplification, recompression of the amplifier output from 45 ps to 6.4 fs was performed. The pulse width of 6.4 fs is, to our knowledge, the shortest ever obtained by OPCPA, and the average power of 1.5 W (1.5 mJ, 1 kHz) is believed to be the highest among few-cycle OPCPA systems.     

Hundred mJ, sub-picoseconds, high temporal contrast OPCPA/Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk hybrid laser system

The authors have demonstrated an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA)/Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk hybrid laser system having hundred mJ level pulse energy sub-picosecond pulse duration with high temporal contrast. At an input chirped-pulse energy of 3.8?mJ from an OPCPA preamplifier an output energy of 130?mJ has been generated from multipass diode-pumped Yb:YAG ceramic thin disk amplifier. A recompressed pulse duration of 450?fs with a contrast level of less than 7.2×10^?9 at ?150?ps before the main pulse has been obtained. The contrast level is the highest value achieved in Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system at 100?mJ level.     

Compact 120 TW Ti:sapphire laser system with a high gain final amplifier

A 120 TW/36 fs laser system based on Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) has been successfully established in our lab. The final four pass Ti:sapphire amplifier pumped by an energetic single-shot Nd:YAG—Nd:glass laser was designed and optimized. With 24 J/8 ns pump energy at 532 nm, 300 mJ/220 ps chirped pulse was amplified to 5.98 J in this amplifier, and a total saturated gain of 20 was achieved. The focused intensity of compressed beam could reach to 10²⁰ W/cm² with the M² of 2.0.     

Optical switching and contrast enhancement in intense laser systems by cascaded optical parametric amplification

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) can be used to improve the prepulse contrast in chirped-pulse amplification systems by amplifying the main pulse with a total saturated OPCPA gain, while not affecting the preceding prepulses of the seed oscillator mode-locked pulse train. We show that a simple modification of a multistage OPCPA system into a cascaded optical parametric amplifier (COPA) results in an optical switch and extreme contrast enhancement that can completely eliminate the preceding and trailing oscillator pulses. Instrument-limited measurement of a prepulse contrast ratio of 1.4 x 10(11) is demonstrated from COPA at a 30 mJ level.     

TW级Ti：Al2O3飞秒激光放大器

报道ＴＷ（１０＾１２Ｗ）级Ｔｉ：Ａｌ２Ｏ３飞秒激光放大器的研究，采用Ｔｉ：Ａｌ２Ｏ３自锁模激光振荡器和脉冲啁啾放大技术，获得了能量为８４ｍＪ，脉宽为７５ｆｓ的放大光脉冲，峰值功率达到ＴＷ量级。     

Numerical simulation of gain narrowing control by hybrid amplifiers chain based on Ti:sapphire and Ti:chrysoberyl

A hybrid amplifier chain composed of Ti:chrysoberyl and Ti:sapphire is proposed to control spectral gain narrowing in this letter. The Ti:chrysoberyl crystal is employed as the host material of the frontier amplification stage with the polarization parallel to a axis. According to the numerical simulation, the seeding pulse with a proper wavelength center is required to generate a broader spectrum, and spectra broader than 120 nm are available with total net gain from 10⁴ to 10¹⁰. The simulation proves that the amplified spectrum can even support pulse shorter than the seed pulse.     

High-energy, high-contrast, multiterawatt laser pulses by optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

We describe a compact, reliable, high-power, and high-contrast noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier system. With a broadband Ti:sapphire oscillator and grating-based stretching and compression, the chirped pulses are amplified from 0.1 nJ to 122 mJ in type I beta-barium borate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers with a total gain of over 10(9) at 10 Hz repetition rate. Pulse compression down to 19-fs duration achieved after amplification indicates a peak power of 3.2 TW at an average power of 0.62 W. The prepulse contrast is measured to be less than 10(-8) on picosecond time scales.     

基于交叉偏振波产生的脉冲净化技术研究与应用

本文利用交叉偏振波产生技术(XPW)对800 nm波段钛宝石飞秒激光器输出的激光脉冲进行时域净化, 提高脉冲时域对比度, 并测量验证了10¹¹对比度的脉冲, 达到测量仪器的动态范围极限, 比初始脉冲时域对比度有三个量级的提高, XPW的效率为22%. 同时发现净化后脉冲光谱宽度也得到一定展宽, 进一步利用啁啾镜对和补偿片对净化后的脉冲进行色散补偿, 得到25 fs脉宽的脉冲. 利用该净化后的激光脉冲作为种子注入已有的太瓦级钛宝石啁啾脉冲放大系统中, 在输出脉冲能量250 mJ, 宽度50 fs, 对应峰值功率5 TW的情况下, 在主脉冲前100 ps以外的范围内测量验证了10¹¹的脉冲对比度.     

Multi-millijoule, nonlinear preamplifier for high intensity femtosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification lasers at 1030 nm

We report the highest energy broadband laser pulses at a center wavelength of 1030 nm based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). We have demonstrated amplification of 1030 nm femtosecond laser pulses from a broadband Yb oscillator to over 6.5 mJ with a total gain of greater than 10⁷ achieved in a single pass through only 56 mm of gain material at a 10 Hz repetition rate. The amplified spectral bandwidth of 10.8 nm affords recompression to a 230 fs pulse duration following amplification. As an alternative to the regenerative amplifier (RA) this system is one of the more promising candidates for realizing compact, high intensity, direct diode-pumped, high repetition rate femtosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) in laser systems.     

Femtosecond pulse parametric amplification at narrowband high power gas laser pumping

In ultrashort pulse amplification a narrowband gas pump pulse laser has been used for the first time. An all-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) was driven by a single-shot iodine photodissociation laser. For the first time a broadband amplification was achieved in potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystal at 800 nm seeding. Ti:sapphire laser pulses stretched from 12.5 fs to 250 ps were amplified and compressed to 27 fs at a 0.5 TW output power. The results suggest using narrowband high power gas lasers as OPCPA drivers to generate petawatt beams.     

High energy and long pulse generation with high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre and laser-diode pumped regenerative amplifier

We report on the generation of a high energy and long pulse for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) by a high-birefringence photonic crystal fibre (HB-PCF) and a laser-diode-pumped regenerative chirped pulse amplifier. Using the femtosecond pump pulse centred at 815~nm, a 1064~nm soliton pulse is produced in the HB-PCF. After injecting it into an Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier with the glass etalons, a narrow-band amplified pulse with an energy of $\sim $4~mJ and a duration of 235 ps is achieved at a repetition rate of 10~Hz, which is suitable for being used as a pump source in the 800~nm OPCPA system.     

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.     

A hybrid OPCPA/Nd:phosphate glass multi-terawatt laser system for seeding of a petawatt laser

To enhance radiographic abilities on its Z-Accelerator, Sandia National Laboratories is incorporating a petawatt laser system into the existing Z-Backlighter laser facility. As part of this work, a short-pulse laser has been constructed to seed the larger Beamlet type Nd:phosphate glass slab amplifiers. This seed laser consists of an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system joined to a Nd:phosphate glass rod amplifier system in order to achieve multi-Joule sub-picosecond operation. The rod amplifier system has been modeled using the Miró code which shows good agreement with the experimental results. This system can achieve focal intensities up to 10¹⁸ W/cm² at a repetition rate of once every 20 min and has been applied to produce k-alpha X-rays in copper.     

Diode-pumped, chirped-pulse Yb:S-FAP regenerative amplifier for laser-Compton X-ray generation

We present a diode-pumped, chirped-pulse Yb:S-FAP regenerative amplifier. This regenerative amplifier was developed as a first amplifier in an all-solid-state Yb:S-FAP laser system for laser-Compton X-ray generation. The amplifier delivers pulse energies above 24 mJ at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. Pulse compression reduces pulse widths to approximately 2.0 ps.