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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics. B, Lasers and optics Lasers and optics, 2012-09, Vol.108 (3), p.501-508
Main Authors: Novák, O., Turčičová, H., Smrž, M., Huynh, J., Pfeifer, M., Straka, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Engineering
Lasers
Optical Devices
Optics
Photonics
Physical Chemistry
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum Optics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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 10 8 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 (
ISSN:0946-2171
1432-0649
DOI:10.1007/s00340-012-5107-5