title: Mid-infrared pulse generation via achromatic quasi-phase-matched OPCPA.
abstract: We demonstrate a new regime for mid-infrared optical parametric chirped- pulse amplification (OPCPA) based on achromatic quasi-phase-matching. Our mid-infrared OPCPA system is based on collinear aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) pre-amplifiers and a non-collinear PPLN power amplifier which is operated in an achromatic phase-matching configuration. The idler output has a bandwidth of 800 nm centered at 3.4 µm. After compression, we obtain a pulse duration of 44.2 fs and a pulse energy of 21.8 µJ at a repetition rate of 50 kHz. We explain the wide applicability of the non-collinear QPM amplification scheme we used, including how it could enable octave-spanning OPCPA in a single device when combined with an aperiodic QPM grating.
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gallmann
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Keller