Self-compression of millijoule 1.5 microm pulses.
We demonstrate a four-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system that delivers carrier-envelope phase-stable approximately 1.5 microm pulses with energies up to 12.5 mJ before recompression. The system is based on a fusion of femtosecond diode-pumped solid-state Yb technology and a picosecond 100 mJ Nd:YAG pump laser. Pulses with 62 nm bandwidth are recompressed to a 74.4 fs duration close to the transform limit. To show the way toward a terawatt-peak-power single-cycle IR source, we demonstrate self-compression of 2.2 mJ pulses down to 19.8 fs duration in a single filament in argon with a 1.5 mJ output energy and 66% energy throughput.
Mücke
Oliver D
OD
Photonics Institute, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 27-387, A-1040 Vienna, Austria. oliver.muecke@tuwien.ac.at
Alisauskas
Skirmantas
S
Verhoef
Aart J
AJ
Pugzlys
Audrius
A
Baltuska
Andrius
A
Smilgevicius
Valerijus
V
Pocius
Jonas
J
Giniūnas
Linas
L
Danielius
Romualdas
R
Forget
Nicolas
N