Pulse synchronization system for picosecond pulse-pumped OPCPA with femtosecond-level relative timing jitter

A simple and compact scheme for synchronization of the pump and signal pulses for short-pulse OPCPA is demonstrated. Relative timing jitter of 17 fs RMS is achieved (1% of the pump pulse duration) and the system remains locked for hours. The scheme uses a balanced optical cross correlator to detect relative delays between the pump and signal pulses and can be operated with just 10's of 1J of pump energy and pJ-level signal energies. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America