Abstract
We present a novel mid-IR source based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) generating 96 fs pulses (9.0 cycles) at 3.2 mm with an energy of 1.2 microJ, at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. The amplified spectrum supports a minimum Fourier transform limited pulse duration of 45 fs, or 4.2 cycles. Our use of OPCPA allows the direct amplification of few-cycle pulses at this mid-IR wavelength, and is inherently scalable to higher energies. The seed source for the system is based on difference frequency generation (DFG) between two outputs of the same fibre laser: this source is expected to be intrinsically CEP stable.
Highlights
Ultrashort pulsed light sources in the mid-IR are sought for numerous different fields ranging from fundamental strong field physics to medical and industrial applications
Of applications [5] such as breath monitoring for medical purposes [6]; the identification of bio-marker molecules [7]; monitoring the concentration of green house gases [8] or explosive detection via LIBS [9]. We present such a completely new, scalable and potentially carrier envelope phase (CEP) stable source based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), generating 9 cycle pulses at 3.2 μm with 1.2 μJ energy at a repetition rate of 100 kHz
Laser technology has advanced in recent years, enabling the production of near-IR pulse durations corresponding to only a few cycles of the laser field, at moderately high repetition rates and with stabilised CEP
Summary
Ultrashort pulsed light sources in the mid-IR are sought for numerous different fields ranging from fundamental strong field physics to medical and industrial applications. Of applications [5] such as breath monitoring for medical purposes [6]; the identification of bio-marker molecules [7]; monitoring the concentration of green house gases [8] or explosive detection via LIBS [9] We present such a completely new, scalable and potentially CEP stable source based on OPCPA, generating 9 cycle pulses at 3.2 μm with 1.2 μJ energy at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. Laser technology has advanced in recent years, enabling the production of near-IR pulse durations corresponding to only a few cycles of the laser field, at moderately high repetition rates and with stabilised CEP. A few-cycle mid-IR source has recently been demonstrated via four wave mixing in a filament [13], but this is based on a Ti:Sa CPA system, inheriting many of the associated disadvantages, and may not be scalable to high energies
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