10 W CEP-stable few-cycle source at 2 μm with 100 kHz repetition rate

We developed a high repetition rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) laser system based on fiber-laser-seeded Innoslab to generate few-cycle pulses around 2 mu m with passively stable carrier-envelope phase (CEP) by difference frequency generation (DFG). Incorporating a piezo mirror before the DFG stage permits rapid CEP control. The OPCPA system is seeded by a stable supercontinuum generated in bulk material with the picosecond Innoslab pulses. Few-cycle pulses with durations of 17 fs and energies of over 100 mu J were produced in a single OPCPA stage. Three different nonlinear crystals: BBO, BiBO, and LNB were tested in the final parametric amplifier, and their average power related limitations are addressed. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement