80 kHz repetition rate high power fiber amplifier flat-top pulse pumped OPCPA based on BIB3O6

We present a high peak power optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) seeded by a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator. A frequency doubled high power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier is pumping the device. Temporal synchronization of the pump pulses is done via soliton generation in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. This soliton is fiber amplified and spectrally filtered in several fiber amplifiers. A simple birefringent pulse shaper generates a flat-top temporal pump pulse profile. Direct amplification of these pulses in large mode area fibers without using a stretcher and compressor provides significantly reduced complexity. For the first time to our knowledge broadband amplification around 800 nm central wavelength is demonstrated in BIB3O6 ( BIBO) crystals. The stretched Ti: Sapphire oscillator pulses are amplified up to a pulse energy of 25 mu J. Recompression with a grating compressor yields 50.7 fs pulses with 16.2 mu J pulse energy. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America