Generation of millijoule few-cycle pulses at 5 mu m by indirect spectral shaping of the idler in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier

Spectral pulse shaping in a high-intensity midwave-infrared (MWIR) optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) operating at 1 kHz repetition rate is reported. We successfully apply a MWIR spatial light modulator (SLM) for the generation of ultrashort idler pulses at 5 mu m wavelength. Only bulk optics and active phase control of the 3.5 mu m signal pulses via the SLM are employed for generating compressed idler pulses with a duration of 80 fs. The 80-fs pulse duration corresponds to less than five optical cycles at the central wavelength of 5.0 mu m. The pulse energy amounts to 1.0 mJ, which translates into a peak power of 10 GW. The generated pulse parameters represent record values for high-intensity MWIR OPCPAs. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.