Generation of pump laser seed pulse for an optically synchronized optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier

Abstract

Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) is a promising amplification method for ultrashort high-power lasers. An OPCPA preamplifier has been adopted in an ultrahigh intensity laser due to its capability to overcome gain narrowing and achieve high temporal contrast. However, the parametric amplification in a picosecond OPCPA (ps-OPCPA) process, requires strict optical synchronization. This thesis has worked out the generation of a seed pulse for an optically synchronized ps-OPCPA. The seed pulse at 1030 nm to the pump laser of the picosecond OPA was generated by taking a part of the signal pulse from a 1 kHz, 30 fs Ti:Sapphire laser at 790 nm, also used as the signal pulse to minimize timing jitter between the signal and the pump pulses. A stable 1030 nm seed source for the 100 Hz, 10 ps Yb:YAG pump laser (PL5210, Ekspla) was realized through the broadband continuum generation in a 5 mm sapphire (AlO ) plate. By employing a line filter with 10 nm bandwidth, the 1030 nm seed pulse with 1.3 nJ energy was amplified to 50 nJ in a fiber preamplifier. The performance of the fiber preamplifier (AP-AMP-1000, AdValue Photonics) was verified by using a 1 nJ, 44 kHz test source (LightWire FFS200CHI, Ekspla). The 515 nm pump source with 7 mJ energy can be produced by employing this seed source. An OPCPA preamplifier with an output of 1.3 mJ energy at 790 nm is expected with this pump beam