Sub-250-mrad, passively carrier-envelope-phase-stable mid-infrared OPCPA source at high repetition rate

An all-optical and passively carrier-to-envelope-phase-stabilized (CEP-stabilized) optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system is demonstrated with sub-250-mrad CEP stability over 11 min and better than 100 mrad over 11 s. This is achieved without any electronic CEP stabilization loop for 160 kHz pulse repetition rate in the few cycle regime. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America