Broadband main OPCPA amplifier at 808 nm wavelength in high deuterated DKDP crystals.

ABSTRACT

The optical aperture of ultrashort extreme intensity laser facilities, which reach 10 PW, will be beyond several hundred millimeters. DKDP is by now the only nonlinear crystal that can be grown to such diameter and used in the main optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) amplifier of such a laser system. Here, at the signal wavelength of 808 nm for the first time, we experimentally present a broadband OPCPA system that consists of a pre-amplifier in BBO crystals and a main OPCPA amplifier in two 95% deuterated DKDP crystals. The final amplified spectrum bandwidth exceeds 50 nm, and a compressed pulse duration of 27 fs has been measured. The conversion efficiency of the main OPCPA amplifier reached 24%, and a net signal gain of 13 was obtained. For the high energy OPCPA amplifier, the influence due to partial absorption on the idler pulses in DKDP crystal is theoretically analyzed. The results indicate the potential utilization of high deuterated DKDP for the main OPCPA amplifiers in a multi-petawatt laser system at 808 nm wavelength.