Speaker
Description
Ultrafast mid-infrared lasers provide access to molecular vibrational and rotational modes that play a crucial role in science. New-generation high-energy ultrafast sources have enabled significant advances in fields such as harmonic generation and attosecond pulse generation. Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) is one of the most well-established methods of producing mJ-level mid-infrared radiation.
We present the current developments of such a system driven by an industrial Yb source. A fraction of our Yb driver seeds a commercial OPCPA enclosure, down-converting it to 3 µm, 65 µJ, 40 fs pulses with active CEP stabilization. To enable amplification of these pulses to the multi-mJ level, the remaining output of the Yb driver is amplified in a Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) system developed in-house, serving as the pump for a custom 3 µm OPCPA system. The OPCPA was designed and numerically validated to amplify the 65 µm pulses up to 5 mJ with a duration of 85 fs and a repetition rate of 10 Hz. This design allows the implementation of a pre-existing Yb:YAG-based amplifier, which operates at 10 Hz. Nevertheless, repetition rates > kHz would be feasible with thin-disk laser technologies.
We discuss the architecture of this system and the capabilities for driving next applications such as high harmonic generation, attosecond science, and particle acceleration.