Efficient and scalable scheme for overcoming the pulse energy bottleneck of single-cycle laser sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel dual-chirped optical parametric amplification scheme using two nonlinear crystals, achieving record pulse energy and peak power for single-cycle mid-infrared laser pulses, enabling potential multi-terawatt applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a new advanced DC-OPA scheme that overcomes pulse energy limitations in single-cycle MIR laser sources using two specific nonlinear crystals.

Findings

Achieved 53 mJ pulse energy in MIR laser pulses.

Compressed pulses to 8.58 fs duration, 1.05 cycles.

Highest pulse energy and peak power for single-cycle MIR pulses.

Abstract

We propose a novel scheme called advanced dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) that employs two kinds of nonlinear crystals (BiB$_3$O$_6$ and MgO-doped lithium niobate) to overcome the bottleneck of pulse energy scalability for single-cycle mid-infrared (MIR) laser pulses. In experiments, the advanced DC-OPA scheme achieved carrier-to-envelope phase-stable MIR laser pulses for a bandwidth of over one octave (1.4-3.1 $\mu$m) with an output pulse energy of 53 mJ. The pulse duration was compressed to 8.58 fs, which corresponds to 1.05 cycles with a central wavelength of 2.44 $\mu$m and peak power of 6 TW. To our knowledge, the obtained values for the pulse energy and peak power are the highest achieved for optical parametric amplification of single-cycle MIR laser pulses. Thanks to the energy scalability of the advanced DC-OPA scheme, it is potentially applicable to multi-TW sub-cycle laser pulses.