Optimization of Pulse Temporal Contrast in Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

In optical parametric chirped pulse amplification （OPCPA）, the degradation of temporal contrast of the compressed signal pulse mainly results from spectral clipping in the grating stretcher with finite size of the optics, parametric fluorescence （PF） and the spectral variations transferred from temporal fluctuation of the pump pulse. The temporal contrast of the recompressed amplified pulse in the OPCPA system is studied numerically and a number of solutions are considered and optimized to achieve the highest temporal contrast.     

Adaptive control of pulse phase in a chirped-pulse amplifier

Using experimental feedback, we demonstrate that a chirped-pulse amplifier can adaptively learn to compensate for the higher-order phase dispersion that is inherent in the amplification process. A genetic algorithm-based search routine is used to repetitively update the pulse phase in a programmable pulse stretcher during a plasma breakdown experiment to maximize the magnitude of spectral blueshift. Reductions in pulse duration from 37 to 30 fs and substantially better wing structure are typically obtained as a result of the optimization.     

High order dispersion control for femtosecond CPA lasers

Taking advantage of the temperature dependence of the refractive index, an arrangement is proposed for thermal control of dispersion of a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser. A glass slab, inserted into the Fourier plane of a stretcher or a compressor, having a spatially varying temperature profile across the beam ensures continuous variation of the spectral phase shift of the pulses. Model calculations are carried out to investigate the feasibility of the arrangement. As a demonstration, simple temperature profiles are created which compensate for the material dispersion of the thermal slab. In a proof of principle experiment it is proved that changes of spectral phase of femtosecond pulses follow the spatially varying temperature profile of a BK7 slab inserted into the compressor of a CPA system. Such a thermal slab is lossless, has a large spectral range, introduces no pixellation and exhibits a high damage threshold. Since it is easy to build into either the stretcher or the compressor of existing CPA lasers, it may become a promising candidate for high order dispersion compensation of high-power femtosecond laser systems. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.79.-e; 42.60.By     

Fine tuning of the higher-order dispersion of a prismatic pulse compressor

The wavelength-dependent thermal refractive index gives an extra degree of freedom for adjustment of higher-order dispersion of a prismatic pulse compressor. The effect allows of fine tuning of both intracavity and extracavity dispersion of ultra-fast oscillators. The calculations have been carried out using a new and rather handy formalism, which describes the operation of a prism pulse compressor as a linear function of the ratio of the total glass path in the prisms and the prism apex distance. The validity of theoretical calculations is supported by experimental evidence. Received: 16 April 2002 / Published online: 15 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +36-62/544658, E-mail: osvay@physx.u-szeged.hu     

Dispersion control of a pulse stretcher– compressor system with two-dimensional spectral interferometry

The frequency dependence of the group delay of both a pulse stretcher and a stretcher–compressor system of a chirped pulse amplification laser is determined with a two-dimensional extension of a spectral interferometric method called the stationary phase point method. The 800-nm, 15-fs probe pulse from a Ti:S oscillator propagates through the stretcher or the stretcher–compressor system. The reference pulse is one of the subsequent oscillator pulses but passes the system and interferes with the probe pulse; hence, a Mach–Zehnder-type interferometer is formed. The shape of the spectrally resolved interference fringes is peculiar to the amount and sign of the relative dispersion properties of the pulses. Group-delay dispersion is obtained from the observation of the position of the stationary phase point in spectrally resolved interferograms at different time delays. This simple method allows for an almost complete and fast alignment of the stretcher–compressor system from scratch until the final adjustments. PACS 42.65.Re     

Visualization of high-order dispersion for compression of few-cycle pulses

We present a visually intuitive method for higher-order dispersion compensation based on multi-photon interpulse interference pulse scans. The dispersion values obtained from these scans are fed back as a correction to an acousto-optical programmable dispersive filter to compensate residual higher-order dispersions up to fifth order. This method is applied to the dispersion management of a non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier. A grism-pair stretcher is designed based on a global dispersion balance which provides a large stretching factor and supports a spectral bandwidth of up to 320 nm. It is implemented in a two-stage three-pass non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier and stretches 6-fs seed pulses to about 80 ps from 700 to 1,000 nm. The amplified pulses are compressed by material dispersion. Pulses of less than 10-fs duration with a pulse energy of 125 μJ are obtained at 20-kHz repetition rate.     

Interplay of nonlinearity and gain shaping in femtosecond fiber amplifiers

A study of chirped-pulse amplification in the presence of large nonlinear phase shifts (as large as approximately 12pi) and finite gain bandwidth is presented. Numerical simulations that include the effect of nonlinearity, group-velocity dispersion, higher-order dispersion, and finite gain bandwidth predict the spectral signature of the interplay of nonlinearity with gain shaping. Experimental results obtained for up to approximately 0.4 microJ pulse energies from a Yb fiber amplifier agree with the numerical calculations.     

Application of unfolding technique to dispersion calculating of reflective grating dispersion delay lines in the chirped pulses amplifier

Dispersion delay lines (such as the compressor and the stretcher) consisting of reflective optical elements (mirrors and reflection diffraction gratings), are now widely used in chirped-pulse amplification technique. It is shown that for their calculations the unfolding technique can be applied. According to this technique, the dispersion of the compressor and the stretcher can be characterized by the "zero-distant pulse fronts" in their spatial chirps.     

Theoretical and experimental studies on a compact stretcher with large spectral bandwidth and high transmission efficiency

To ensure safe and effective amplification for the chirped pulse amplification laser facility, many factors such as pulse spectral width, pulse duration, grating parameters and incidence angle parameter are considered carefully in the design of the pulse stretcher. A compact four pass Offner stretcher design is given out. Experiment results show that the stretcher has broad spectral width, large stretching ratio and high transmission efficiency. By comparison, the calculated result of the dispersion effect on the pulse duration is completely consistent with the experiment result.     

展宽压缩器的谱透过率对短脉冲时间特性的影响

为了考察短脉冲激光装置中展宽压缩器的谱透过率对输出脉冲时间特性的影响,通过解析推导得到了激光脉冲通过平行光栅对的谱透过率表达式。结果表明:谱透过率不仅与光栅尺寸及光栅线密度有关,还与光束口径、入射角、光栅间距等参数有关;通常情况下展宽器的截止带通较小,对脉冲的信噪比有较大的影响;而压缩器中由于光束口径很大,有很宽的渐变透过率带通,对压缩后的脉宽及信噪比有利。目前常见的短脉冲激光系统中,限制输出脉冲信噪比的往往是展宽器而非压缩器。     

飞秒脉冲放大器中色散的计算和评价方法

用光线追迹法论证了光栅球面镜系统与普通的光栅对系统是一对相位共轭元件,并提出了光栅球面镜系统色散的解析计算公式,以及对一个典型的放大系统做了模拟.模拟结果表明,对于一个放大系统,存在一个最佳的材料色散,用它可以获得最大的无色散带宽. 关键词： 飞秒激光放大器 展宽器 压缩器 色散补偿     

增益饱和在啁啾脉冲放大中的影响

研究了增益饱和在啁啾脉冲放大中的影响，发现由于增益饱和在存在，压缩后脉冲的信噪比会下降，而且展宽器附加的色散也会降低输出的信噪比，这种降低对应着一定的光谱畸变。通过对展宽／压缩器作用的分析，提示了啁啾脉冲放大中光谱与光强的内在联系，提出利用非共振放大来修正光谱畸变提高放大压缩后的信噪比。     

Programmable dispersion compensation and pulse shaping in a 26-fs chirped-pulse amplifier

We have constructed a 26-fs chirped-pulse amplifier that incorporates a programmable liquid-crystal spatial light modulator in the pulse stretcher. The modulator serves a dual purpose. First, we apply frequency-dependent phase shifts to compensate for cubic, quartic, and nonlinear phase dispersion in the amplifier, which results in a reduction in pulse duration from 32 to 26 fs, in agreement with the transform limit of the amplified pulse spectrum. Second, we are able to produce high-fidelity compressed amplified shaped pulses by applying phase masks directly within the stretcher. Shaped pulse energies of greater than 1 mJ are routinely obtained.     

Back-side-coated chirped mirrors with ultra-smooth broadband dispersion characteristics

We demonstrate a new technique for the design of chirped mirrors with extremely smooth dispersion characteristics over an extended ultra-broadband wavelength range. Our approach suppresses spectral dispersion oscillations, which can lead to unwanted strong spectral modulations and limit the bandwidth of mode-locked laser pulses. Dispersion oscillations are significantly reduced by coating the chirped mirror structure on the back side of a substrate, providing ideal impedance matching between coating and ambient medium. An anti-reflection coating may be added on the front side of the substrate, geometrically separated from the chirped mirror. The chirped mirror structure and the anti-reflection coating are non-interfering and can be independently designed and optimized. The separation of both coating sections provides a much better solution for the impedance-matching problems than previous approaches to chirped mirror design. We show by a theoretical analysis and numerical simulations that minimum dispersion oscillations are achieved if the index of the substrate is identical to the index of one of the coating materials and if double-chirping is used for the chirped mirror structure. Based on this analysis, we design a mirror that supports a bandwidth of 220 THz with group delay dispersion oscillations of about 2 fs² (rms), an order-of magnitude improvement compared to previous designs of similar bandwidth. In a first experimental demonstration of back-side-coated (BASIC) mirrors, we achieve nearly transform-limited and virtually unchirped pulses of 5.8 fs duration from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. BASIC mirrors are particularly suited for higher-order dispersion compensation schemes. They support the extremely broad spectra of few-cycle pulses and promise to provide clean pulse shapes in this regime. Received: 19 April 2000 / Published online: 6 September 2000     

High power Yb-fiber laser amplifier based on nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification at a repetition rate of 1 MHz

We report a high power fiber amplifier based on nonlinear chirped-pulse amplification(NCPA). To manage the nonlinearity,pulse shaping is introduced by self-phase modulation in the fiber stretcher with the help of spectral filtering. The third-order dispersion is compensated for by the nonlinear phase shift in the NCPA. With optimization, the system can output 382 fs pulse duration with 20 W average power at 1 MHz repetition rate. The long-term average power fluctuation is measured to be0.5% in 24 h, and the beam quality factor(M~2) is 1.25.     

Multipulse operation regime in a self-mode-locked Cr:forsterite femtosecond laser

We report the observation of pulse splitting generated from a self-mode-locked Cr⁴⁺:forsterite laser operating near zero group-velocity dispersion. This new behavior of a femtosecond Cr⁴⁺:forsterite laser could be due to a combination of self-phase modulation, group-velocity dispersion and higher-order phase dispersion inside the laser cavity. The experimental study shows that large third- and fourth-order dispersion inside the cavity leads to the splitting of the solitary pulse into two or three identical pulses, and the results fit reasonably well with those of theoretical calculations.     

Chirped pulse amplification with a nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating matched to the Treacy compressor

We demonstrate a fiber chirped pulse amplification system that uses an engineered nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating stretcher dispersion matched to the Treacy compressor. The seed pulses at 1558 nm are stretched to 720 ps, amplified by more than 50 dB to 6.5-microJ energy, and recompressed to 940 fs. After almost 1000 times compression the pulses are within 30% of the bandwidth limit and have a contrast ratio of better than 30 dB.     

使用马丁内兹展宽器的啁啾脉冲放大器特性研究

导出了使用马丁内兹展宽器的啁啾脉冲放大（CPA）系统的相位解析表达式，用此公式讨论了展宽器中各参数对系统的影响，并用此方法优化了实际的CPA系统- 关键词： 马丁内兹展宽器 啁啾脉冲放大系统 相位修正因子 优化     

High-fidelity, 160 fs, 5 μJ pulses from an integrated Yb-fiber laser system with a fiber stretcher matching a simple grating compressor

Although femtosecond microjoule Yb-fiber systems are attractive because of a straightforward power scalability, they inherently suffer from a lowered pulse fidelity as a result of complex dispersion and nonlinearity management. Here, we present an integrated Yb-fiber system delivering high-fidelity microjoule pulses compressible down to 160 fs. The system uses a dispersion compensating fiber stretcher that is specially designed to match the dispersion of a 1480 lines/mm grating compressor. Performance analysis suggests the further possibility of scaling the pulse energy to tens of microjoules without pulse quality deterioration using this dispersion management scheme.