Mid-infrared pulse generation via achromatic quasi-phase-matched OPCPA

We demonstrate a new regime for mid-infrared optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) based on achromatic quasi-phase-matching. Our mid-infrared OPCPA system is based on collinear aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) pre-amplifiers and a non-collinear PPLN power amplifier which is operated in an achromatic phase-matching configuration. The idler output has a bandwidth of 800 nm centered at 3.4 mu m. After compression, we obtain a pulse duration of 44.2 fs and a pulse energy of 21.8 mu J at a repetition rate of 50 kHz. We explain the wide applicability of the non-collinear QPM amplification scheme we used, including how it could enable octave-spanning OPCPA in a single device when combined with an aperiodic QPM grating. (C)2014 Optical Society of America