| Apparatus Generates CE-Phase-Stable Two-Cycle Optical Pulses |
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| Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio | |
| Oct 01 2007 | |
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Advertisement: To ensure efficient transfer of energy from pump pulses to seeded signal pulses, it is necessary to match the duration of the signal pulses with that of the pump pulses. For 30 ps pump pulses and 14 fs signal pulses, this corresponds to a stretching factor of ≈2×103. The needed match is accomplished by means of an ultracompact stretcher compressor unit that includes a first stretching stage, preceding the first OPA stage, comprising a Brewster-cut, 150-mm block made of a commercially available high-optical-quality, optically isotropic fused-silica (quartzglass) product. After sufficient amplification of signal pulses in the first OPA stage, there is a second stretching stage (which also serves as a pulse-shaping and higher-order-dispersion-compensation stage) comprising a programmable acousto-optic dispersion filter based on a 45-mm TeO2 crystal. Following amplification in the second OPA stage, pulses are compressed in a 30-mm silicon block. In addition to matching the durations of the pump and seeded signal pulses, it is necessary to synchronize the pulses because any temporal mismatch adversely reduces the efficiency of optical parametric amplification and distorts the signal pulses. The Ti-doped sapphire laser is synchronized with the Nd:YLF regenerative amplifier by injection seeding of this amplifier: A portion of the broadband DFG output from the MgO:PPLN crystal in the wavelength range of 1,050 ±10 nm is coupled into an yttrium-doped fiber amplifier (YDFA), the output of which seeds the Nd:YLF regenerative amplifier for generating 30-ps pulses having a nominal middle wavelength of 1,047 nm. This work was done by Franz X. Kärtner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Air Force Research Laboratory. This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).
Apparatus Generates CE-Phase-Stable Two-Cycle Optical Pulses (reference AFRL-0022) is currently available for download from the TSP library. Login first to download.
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