Amplification of ultra-short optical pulses in a two-pump fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier

We demonstrate with realistic numerical simulations that fiber optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is able to amplify ultra-short optical pulses. Such amplifiers driven by two-pump waves can amplify pulse bandwidth twice as large as the one of a single pump configuration. We show that pulses as short as 50 fs can be directly amplified. In addition, we take benefit from the saturation regime to achieve spectral broadening which makes possible to reduce pulse duration down to 15 fs. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America