Broadband femtosecond OPCPA system driven by the single-shot narrow-band iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA

0382113 - FZÚ 2013 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Novák, Ondřej - Turčičová, Hana - Smrž, Martin - Huynh, Jaroslav - Pfeifer, Miroslav - Straka, Petr
Broadband femtosecond OPCPA system driven by the single-shot narrow-band iodine photodissociation laser SOFIA.
Applied Physics B-Lasers and Optics. Roč. 108, č. 3 (2012), s. 501-508. ISSN 0946-2171. E-ISSN 1432-0649
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA202/06/0814; GA MŠMT(CZ) LC528
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 506350 - LASERLAB-EUROPE
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100523
Keywords : OPCPA * ultrashort laser pulses * optical parametric amplifiers * Iodine lasers * gas lasers * nonlinear optical crystals, * petawatt lasers
Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers
Impact factor: 1.782, year: 2012
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5l263x8722204606/

A two-stage optical parametric amplifier driven by a frequency-tripled beam of the iodine laser system SOFIA was built. This single-shot OPCPA facility and the system synchronizing the pump and signal pulses are described. The chirped seed pulse of a Ti:sapphire oscillator at the 800 nm central wavelength is amplified in an LBO and a KDP amplifier over 10^8 times. The amplified spectral bandwidth of 68 nm corresponds to the transform-limited pulse duration of 14 fs. This implies a compressed pulse of TW power. Gain measurements reveal a good match with the theoretical predictions. Signal and idler beam fluence profiles are presented. The suitability of the iodine photodissociation 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 narrow gain bandwidth (< 0.1 cm-1) and, therefore, the conventional Chirped-Pulse Amplification technique does not lead to pulse durations at the femtosecond level.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0212433