Open AccessHigh-energy two-cycle pulses at 32 μm by a broadband-pumped dual-chirped optical parametric amplification
Author(s) -
Yanchun Yin,
Jie Li,
Xiaoming Ren,
Yan Wang,
Andrew Chew,
Zenghu Chang
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.24.024989
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , chirp , optical parametric amplifier , sapphire , bandwidth (computing) , broadband , laser , energy conversion efficiency , optoelectronics , optical amplifier , physics , telecommunications , computer science
A design for efficient generation of mid-infrared pulses at 3.2 μm is presented, which is based on numerical simulations of the broadband-pumped dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) in LiNbO 3 doped with 5 mol.% MgO (MgO:LiNbO 3 ). The broadband seed can be generated by difference frequency generation in KTA using spectrally-broadened Ti:Sapphire lasers. The broad DC-OPA phase-matching bandwidth-spanning from 2.4 μm to 4.0 μm-is achieved by chirping both the broadband Ti:Sapphire pump pulses and the seed pulses in such a way that the individual temporal slice of pump spectrum is able to phase match that of seed spectrum. This phase matching scheme allows the use of longer crystals without gain narrowing or loss of conversion efficiency. The theoretical conversion efficiency from the pump to the idler reaches 19.1 %, enabling generation of a few hundred mJ of mid-IR energy with an available large-aperture MgO:LiNbO 3 crystal. Furthermore, the commercially available acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF) ensures compression of such a broad bandwidth down to 20 fs (two optical cycles at 3.2 μm).