Femtosecond mid-IR optical vortex laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

A femtosecond mid-infrared optical vortex laser can be used for high harmonic generation to extend cutoff energy to the kilo-electron-volt range with orbital angular momentum, as well as other secondary radiations. For these, we demonstrate a high-energy femtosecond 4 mu m optical vortex laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) for the first time. The optical vortex seed is generated from a femtosecond 4 mu m laser by a silicon spiral phase plate with the topological charge l of 1 before the stretcher. Through using a two-stage collinear OPCPA amplifier, the chirped vortex pulse is amplified to 12.4 mJ with 200 nm full width at half-maximum bandwidth. After compression, the vortex laser pulse with 9.53 mJ, 119 fs can be obtained. Furthermore, the vortex characteristics of the laser beam are investigated and evaluated. This demonstration can scale to generate a higher-peak-power vortex mid-IR laser and pave a new way for high field physics. (C) 2020 Chinese Laser Press