Octave spanning gain by cavity enhanced optical parametric amplification

超宽带高功率激光技术为极端光学科学打开了一扇大门，如频率梳计量学、阿秒科学和相对论光学。光参量啁啾脉冲放大(OPCPA)利用了光参量放大(OPA)的宽放大带宽和波长可调谐特性，已成为这些新兴研究领域的关键技术之一。该方案旨在开发一种新的基于腔的参量放大技术，该技术将使用普通的泵浦源和OPA介质，在~100 MHz的重复频率下允许倍频程的增益带宽和近量子限制的转换效率。这种技术被称为腔增强型光学参量啁啾脉冲放大(C-OPCPA)，它回收和被动整形外腔内的泵浦脉冲，从而有效地放大非线性介质中的种子脉冲。C-OPCPA利用增强的泵浦强度来补偿波矢失配，在C-OPCPA几何结构中，这可以在超过一个八度频程的带宽上产生有效的放大。智力价值：拟议的研究将对基本理解具有增益和非线性损耗的腔动力学做出重大贡献，并开发一种新的方法，以首次实现在~100 MHz重复频率下的高效倍频程跨度参数放大器。更广泛的影响：C-OPCPA系统在许多科学和技术应用中非常有用，例如频率梳状放大和阿秒计量学。将展示的C-OPCPA系统可以放大到更高的平均功率，并作为泵浦源，通过高次谐波产生高通量阿秒XUV脉冲。该项目还将为研究生、博士后研究人员和来访的科学家提供教学工具。

Ultrabroadband high-power laser technology has opened a door to extreme optical sciences, such as frequency-comb metrology, attosecond science, and relativistic optics. Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) has become one of the key techniques of these emerging research areas employing the broad amplification bandwidth and wavelength tunability of optical parametric amplification (OPA). This proposal aims to develop a novel cavity-based parametric amplification technique that will allow octave-spanning gain bandwidth and near-quantum-limited conversion efficiency at ~100 MHz repetition rates, using ordinary pump sources and OPA media. This technique, referred to as cavity-enhanced optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (C-OPCPA), recycles and passively reshapes pump pulses inside an external cavity to efficiently amplify seed pulses in a nonlinear medium. C-OPCPA employs the use of enhanced pump intensity to compensate for wave-vector mismatch, which, in the C-OPCPA geometry, can lead to efficient amplification at bandwidths of more than one octave.Intellectual Merit: The proposed research will make significant contributions to the fundamental understanding of cavity dynamics with gain and nonlinear loss and develop a new method in order to achieve, for the first time, a highly efficient octave-spanning parametric amplifier at ~100 MHz repetition rate.Broader Impact: C-OPCPA systems are very useful for many scientific and technological applications, such as frequency-comb amplification and attosecond metrology. The C-OPCPA system to be demonstrated can be scaled up to much higher average power and serve as a pump source for high-flux attosecond XUV pulse generation via high-harmonic generation. The project will also provide a teaching vehicle for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scientists.