Octave spanning gain by cavity enhanced optical parametric amplification

通过腔增强光学参量放大获得倍频程增益

• 批准号: 1002286
• 负责人: Franz Kaertner
• 金额: $ 30.7万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-04-01 至 2013-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1002286&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Octave; spanning; gain; cavity; enhanced

Ultrabroadband high-power laser technology has opened a door to extreme optical sciences, such as frequency-comb metrology, attosecond science, and relativistic optics. Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) has become one of the key techniques of these emerging research areas employing the broad amplification bandwidth and wavelength tunability of optical parametric amplification (OPA). This proposal aims to develop a novel cavity-based parametric amplification technique that will allow octave-spanning gain bandwidth and near-quantum-limited conversion efficiency at ~100 MHz repetition rates, using ordinary pump sources and OPA media. This technique, referred to as cavity-enhanced optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (C-OPCPA), recycles and passively reshapes pump pulses inside an external cavity to efficiently amplify seed pulses in a nonlinear medium. C-OPCPA employs the use of enhanced pump intensity to compensate for wave-vector mismatch, which, in the C-OPCPA geometry, can lead to efficient amplification at bandwidths of more than one octave.Intellectual Merit: The proposed research will make significant contributions to the fundamental understanding of cavity dynamics with gain and nonlinear loss and develop a new method in order to achieve, for the first time, a highly efficient octave-spanning parametric amplifier at ~100 MHz repetition rate.Broader Impact: C-OPCPA systems are very useful for many scientific and technological applications, such as frequency-comb amplification and attosecond metrology. The C-OPCPA system to be demonstrated can be scaled up to much higher average power and serve as a pump source for high-flux attosecond XUV pulse generation via high-harmonic generation. The project will also provide a teaching vehicle for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scientists.

超宽带高功率激光技术为频梳计量学、阿秒科学和相对论光学等极端光学科学打开了大门。光参量线性调频脉冲放大（OPCPA）利用光参量放大（OPA）的宽放大带宽和波长可调性，已成为这些新兴研究领域的关键技术之一。该提案旨在开发一种新颖的基于腔体的参量放大技术，该技术将使用普通泵浦源和 OPA 介质，在约 100 MHz 重复率下实现倍频程增益带宽和接近量子限制的转换效率。这项技术被称为腔增强型光学参量啁啾脉冲放大 (C-OPCPA)，它循环利用并被动地重塑外腔内的泵浦脉冲，以有效地放大非线性介质中的种子脉冲。 C-OPCPA 采用增强泵浦强度来补偿波矢量失配，在 C-OPCPA 几何结构中，这可以在超过一个倍频程的带宽上实现有效放大。 智力优点：所提出的研究将做出重大贡献加深对具有增益和非线性损耗的腔动力学的基本理解，并开发一种新方法，以便首次实现约 100 MHz 重复率的高效倍频程参数放大器。更广泛的影响： C-OPCPA 系统对于许多科学和技术应用非常有用，例如频率梳放大和阿秒计量。待演示的 C-OPCPA 系统可以扩展到更高的平均功率，并通过高次谐波生成作为高通量阿秒 XUV 脉冲生成的泵浦源。该项目还将为研究生、博士后研究人员和访问科学家提供教学工具。