Abstract
This review highlights the development of ultrafast sources in the near- and middle-IR range, developed in the laboratory of Nonlinear Optics and Superstrong Laser Fields at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The design of laser systems is based on a powerful ultrafast Cr:Forsterite system as a front-end and the subsequent nonlinear conversion of radiation into the mid-IR, THz, and UV spectral range. Various schemes of optical parametric amplifiers based on oxide and non-oxide crystals pumped with Cr:Forsterite laser can receive pulses in the range of 4–6 µm with gigawatt peak power. Alternative sources of mid-IR ultrashort laser pulses at a relatively high (MHz) repetition rate are also proposed as difference frequency generators and as a femtosecond mode-locked oscillator based on an Fe:ZnSe crystal. Iron ion-doped chalcogenides (Fe:ZnSe and Fe:CdSe) are shown to be effective gain media for broadband high-peak power mid-IR pulses in this spectral range. The developed sources pave the way for advanced research in strong-field science.
Highlights
Since the invention of the first laser in the 1960s, laser technology has developed rapidly, both in terms of shortening the pulse duration and increasing its energy [1]
We have developed an approach for creating a high-power femtosecond laser system based on the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) of a mid-IR
Ultrafast mid-IR laser sources, based on optical parametric amplifiers pumped with a gigawatt femtosecond near-IR laser system and chirped pulse amplification in Fe2+ -ion doped chalcogenides, represent the basis for a promising multispectral
Summary
Since the invention of the first laser in the 1960s, laser technology has developed rapidly, both in terms of shortening the pulse duration and increasing its energy [1]. Another group managed to move further along the spectrum and create a source operating at a central wavelength of 5.0 μm, which is currently providing the highest repetition rate of up to 1 kHz with an energy of up to 1 mJ at a duration of ~75 fs [45] As follows from these examples, the schemes for obtaining femtosecond radiation in the mid-IR range are based on the method of chirped pulses parametric amplification (OPCPA). As an alternative method for obtaining mid-IR broadband seed radiation in the gain band of the chalcogenide medium Fe:ZnSe, we proposed and implemented the world’s first femtosecond graphene mode-locked Fe:ZnSe oscillator pumped with a continuous-wave (CW) 3 μm Er:ZBLAN fiber laser [46] Such a source in the future is expected to render redundant complex methods of obtaining seed radiation in parametric amplification processes in nonlinear optical crystals pumped with a Cr:Forsterite laser, and create a fully solid-state femtosecond laser system of the mid-IR (4–5 μm) range based on an Fe:ZnSe active medium. The expansion of the generation range of such a laser system is achieved by changing the matrix (ZnS, ZnSe, CdSe, CdS) doped with iron ions while maintaining the absorption spectrum in the three-micron wavelength range, which makes it possible to use an optical pumping source developed in the laboratory [49,50,51]
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