High-power OPCPAs at 1450–2400 nm wavelength

High power and high repetition rate femtosecond lasers at 1.45–2.40 μm wavelength are critical for many applications in the physical, chemical, and biological sciences, such as microchip electron accelerators and soft-X-ray coherent diffractive imaging. Previously, such systems have been realized by optical parametric amplification from Ti:Sapphire lasers at 800 nm with limited power levels. A novel optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA), pumped by high-power Yb-doped solid state laser, and combined with bulk crystal white-lightgeneration seeding (WLG) is demonstrated here. The laser system features tunable and broadband operation in the 1.45–2.40 μm spectral range, requiring no complex cooling with a compact footprint. Such systems have recently become commercially available from Class 5 Photonics and allow for scalability up to millijoule pulse energies at 100 W average power.

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