title: Broadband amplification by picosecond OPCPA in DKDP pumped at 515 nm.
abstract: On the quest towards reaching petawatt-scale peak power light pulses with few-cycle duration, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) pumped on a time scale of a few picoseconds represents a very promising route. Here we present an experimental demonstration of few-ps OPCPA in DKDP, in order to experimentally verify the feasibility of the scheme. Broadband amplification was observed in the wavelength range of 830-1310 nm. The amplified spectrum supports two optical cycle pulses, at a central wavelength of ~920 nm, with a pulse duration of 6.1 fs (FWHM). The comparison of the experimental results with our numerical calculations of the OPCPA process showed good agreement. These findings confirm the reliability of our theoretical modelling, in particular with respect to the design for further amplification stages, scaling the output peak powers to the petawatt scale.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1 D-85748 Garching, Germany. christoph.skrobol@mpq.mpg.de
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Skrobol
authors.forename: Izhar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klingebiel
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wandt
authors.forename: Sergei A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Trushin
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Major
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Krausz
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karsch