Open AccessPulse-contrast degradation due to pump phase-modulation in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system
Author(s) -
Hongliang Ren,
Liejia Qian,
Heyuan Zhu,
Dianyuan Fan,
Peng Yuan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.012948
Subject(s) - optics , chirped pulse amplification , self phase modulation , materials science , phase modulation , pulse (music) , optical parametric amplifier , dispersion (optics) , phase (matter) , ultrashort pulse , parametric statistics , laser , signal (programming language) , nonlinear optics , optical amplifier , physics , phase noise , computer science , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , detector , programming language
We theoretically study the pulse-contrast degradation of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system pumped by a temporally phase-modulated laser. We reveal two physical mechanisms that reduce the contrast in such a parametric process: the effect of phase transfer caused by group-velocity mismatch (GVM) and the effect of FM-to-AM conversion caused by group-velocity dispersion (GVD). Degradation of the contrast is quantified via numerical simulations. To reduce the effect of phase transfer, a pair of OPCPAs seeded by the signal and idler respectively, is studied for effectively improving the contrast in such a case with pump phase modulation. The results presented in this paper are of particular importance for extremely intense laser applications requiring high contrast.