Demonstration of a 1.1 petawatt laser based on a hybrid optical parametric chirped pulse amplification/mixed Nd:glass amplifier.

We present the design and performance of the Texas Petawatt Laser, which produces a 186 J 167 fs pulse based on the combination of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) and mixed Nd:glass amplification. OPCPA provides the majority of the gain and is used to broaden and shape the seed spectrum, while amplification in Nd:glass accounts for >99% of the final pulse energy. Compression is achieved with highly efficient multilayer dielectric gratings.

Generation of high-contrast millijoule pulses by optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification in periodically poled KTiOPO4.

A new high-contrast, high-gain optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) architecture is demonstrated in periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP). This architecture overcomes parametric fluorescence contrast limitations of the OPCPA in periodically poled materials. The scheme is based on two passes of a single relay-imaged pump pulse and a free-propagating signal pulse through a 1.5 mm x 5 mm x 7.5 mm PPKTP crystal. The output energy of 1.2 mJ is generated at a center wavelength of 1053 nm by 24 mJ of pump energy. A prepulse contrast level of > 3 x 10(7) was measured with > 10(6) saturated gain in the amplifier. Amplified pulses were compressed to 200 fs. This simple and versatile concept requires only a modest pump energy from a commercial pump laser and represents a possible high-contrast front end for high-energy Nd:glass-based petawatt-class lasers.

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier as an alternative to Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifiers.

We demonstrated a high-pulse energy, femtosecond-pulse source based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification. We successfully amplified 1-microm broadband oscillator pulses to 31 mJ and recompressed them to 310-fs pulse duration, at a 10-Hz repetition rate. The gain in our system is 6 x 10(7), achieved by the single passing of only 40 mm of gain material pumped by a commercial Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. This relatively simple system replaces a more complex Ti:sapphire regenerative-amplifier-based chirped-pulse amplification system. Numerous features in design and performance of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers make them a preferred alternative to regenerative amplifiers based on Ti:sapphire in the front end of high-peak-power lasers.

Hybrid chirped-pulse amplification.

Conversion efficiency in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is limited by spatiotemporal characteristics of the pump pulse. We have demonstrated a novel hybrid chirped-pulse amplification scheme that uses a single pump pulse and combines optical parametric amplification and laser amplification to achieve high gain, high conversion efficiency, and high prepulse contrast without utilization of electro-optic modulators. We achieved an overall conversion efficiency of 37% from the hybrid amplification system at a center wavelength of 820nm. Generation of multiterawatt pulses is possible by use of this simple method and commercial Q -switched pump lasers.