High efficiency, high energy, CEP-stabilized infrared optical parametric amplifier

Abstract

A high efficiency, tunable, carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) stabilized near-infrared optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is demonstrated with just a single BBO crystal. A white-light continuum produced by a CEP-stabilized laser is seeded into the two stages of the type II OPA system. We achieved a pump-to-signal conversion efficiency of 34% with a single nonlinear crystal. To our knowledge this is the highest conversion efficiency reported in broadband optical parametric amplification, using the two stages. This work demonstrates a compact way to for tunable femtosecond pulses with CEP stabilization.