Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification

Awarded the Nobel Prize in 2018, chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology for high-energy lasers has revolutionized the whole ultrashort laser science. The CPA technique is intended for boosting the power of ultrashort pulses while avoiding optical damage to the lasing medium. Nowadays, it is widely used in modern ultrashort pulse laser amplifier systems, whether they are compact laser systems, such as PHAROS and CARBIDE lasers, or large petawatt peak power laser systems. However, multiple scientific applications require high-intensity pulses at different spectral ranges, leading to the development of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA).

The first proof-of-concept experiment on stretching, amplification, and compression of chirped pulses in an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) was demonstrated in 1992 by a Vilnius University research group led by prof. A. Piskarskas. It was proposed that using high-energy pump pulses to amplify chirped and stretched signals in an OPA would allow boosting the power of femtosecond pulses up to a terawatt level. Since then, OPCPA has become a widely recognized and rapidly developing amplification technology for high-power femtosecond pulse generation, with systems now reaching petawatt peak powers. More so, OPCPA technology generates not only ultrahigh power pulses but also extremely short (few-cycle) pulses, experimentally obtained in the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), and mid-infrared (MIR) spectral ranges. Currently, the OPCPA is the only laser technology simultaneously providing high peak and average power, as well as a few-cycle pulse duration, required by the most demanding scientific applications.

Light Conversion’s response to these demands is a portfolio of cutting-edge OPCPA systems based on years of experience developing and manufacturing OPAs and femtosecond lasers. Due to inherently high-contrast output pulses, OPCPAs have also been adopted as front-ends in a number of ultra-high intensity lasers, offering certain advantages over other temporal contrast enhancement techniques. Pulses with relatively high contrast after optical parametric amplifiers are then further amplified in laser amplifiers up to ultra-high energies. State-of-the-art OPCPA systems are built using Light Conversion’s front-ends. Benefiting from the industrial-grade stability and reliability of PHAROS and CARBIDE lasers, ORPHEUS-OPCPA delivers few-cycle, CEP-stable pulses in a package as compact as our standard parametric amplifiers. Furthermore, ORPHEUS-OPCPA can also serve as a seed source for larger amplifiers, delivering background-free pulses with near-single-cycle bandwidths, excellent spectral phase coherence, and CEP stability.

Another OPCPA highlight is the SYLOS single-cycle laser at ELI-ALPS (Extreme Light Infrastructure Attosecond Light Pulse Source), built by Light Conversion and Ekspla consortium. The SYLOS laser system is based on Light Conversion’s OPCPAs driven by our PHAROS femtosecond laser and Ekspla’s picosecond laser. The basic working principle of the system involves the PHAROS laser pumping two femtosecond OPAs. The first OPA produces a passively CEP-stabilized pulse at 1.3 µm for generating a CEP-stable white-light continuum. Simultaneously, the second OPA amplifies the white-light continuum in the 700 – 1000 nm spectral range, providing a high-contrast seed pulse for the subsequent optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification stages. The pulse, amplified to 50 mJ pulse energy and centered at 850 nm wavelength, is compressed in a sequence of glass blocks and chirped mirrors down to 10 fs pulse duration. Its successor, the SYLOS 3 laser system, delivers approximately 120 mJ pulses with a CEP stability of less than 250 mrad and pulse energy stability of less than 1%. Read more on the SYLOS laser system in a recent article by S. Toth et al.

For such and similar high-energy OPCPA systems, refer to OPCPA-HE. If high repetition rate is desired, refer to ORPHEUS-OPCPA, and do not hesitate to contact us for custom specifications.