Open AccessTheoretical investigations of broadband mid-infrared optical parametric amplification based on a La_3Ga_55Nb_05O_14 crystal
Author(s) -
Jingui Ma,
Jing Wang,
Dongxia Hu,
Peng Yuan,
Guoqiang Xie,
Hongying Zhu,
Haohai Yu,
Huaijin Zhang,
Jing Wang,
Liejia Qian
Publication year - 2016
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.24.023957
Subject(s) - optical parametric amplifier , optics , infrared , broadband , optical amplifier , nonlinear optics , mid infrared , bandwidth (computing) , amplifier , crystal (programming language) , parametric statistics , optoelectronics , wavelength , materials science , stimulated emission , ultrashort pulse , laser , physics , telecommunications , computer science , statistics , mathematics , cmos , programming language
Recent progress in strong-field physics has stimulated the quest for intense mid-infrared ultrashort light sources. Optical parametric amplification (OPA) is one promising method to build up such sources, however, its development significantly relies on the availability of suitable nonlinear crystals. Here, we introduce a positive uniaxial crystal La 3 Ga 5.5 Nb 0.5 O 14 (LGN), which exhibits a favorable set of optical properties for the application in a mid-IR OPA. We theoretically evaluate the performance of LGN as the nonlinear crystal of a mid-infrared OPA, with an emphasis on the bandwidth characteristic. We find that this crystal can support broadband amplifications across its entire mid-infrared transparent region up to 6 μm, outperforming other commonly-used mid-infrared crystals in terms of gain bandwidth. Few-cycle mid-infrared pulses at various wavelengths can be generated from the LGN-based optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers.