Sub-four-cycle laser pulses directly from a high-repetition-rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier at 3.4 μm

Authors

B. W. Mayer, C. R. Phillips, L. Gallmann, M. M. Fejer, and U. Keller

Abstract

We generate sub-four-cycle pulses (41.6 fs) with 12 μJ of pulse energy in the mid-infrared spectral range (center wavelength 3.4 μm) from a high-repetition-rate, collinear three-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) operating at 50 kHz. Apodized aperiodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 crystals with a negative chirp rate are employed as gain media to achieve ultrabroadband phase-matching while minimizing optical parametric genera- tion. The seed pulses are obtained via a 1.56 μm femtosecond fiber laser, which is spectrally broadened in a dispersion-shifted telecom fiber to support 1000 nm bandwidth idler pulses in the mid-infrared.

Journal

Optics Letters

Volume

38

Number

21

Date

11/2013
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