Abstract
High-energy few-cycle mid-IR lasers attract much attention as prospective driver sources for many strong-field applications, most prominently coherent [1] and incoherent [2] X-ray pulse generation in the keV photon energy region. These proof-of-concept demonstrations relied on a 3.9-μm KTA-based chirped-pulse OPA pumped by a 1-μm picosecond laser [3]. Obtaining high-energy few-cycle pulses at even longer wavelengths requires a different approach to building an OPA. The most promising route toward extending the driver wavelength to 6 µm and above involves using ZGP (ZnGeP2) as a nonlinear crystal pumped at wavelengths exceeding 2 µm, as confirmed by a proof-of-principle experiment [4] that prompted us to develop a sub-ps 2.1 μm Ho:YAG pump laser [5]. In this paper, we demonstrate mid-IR OPA that is driven entirely by a Ho CPA, with the latter providing, remarkably, not only the pump pulses at 2.1 µm but also a white-light seed that with the use of just a single intermediate OPA stage permits amplification of 6-µm pulses in subsequent stages. Despite a relatively long pulse duration from the Ho:YAG system (~ 700 fs), it is nevertheless possible to generate a stable, efficient, and broadband supercontinuum which is suitable for seeding and enabling carrier-envelope phase (CEP) control of the 6 μm OPA.
© 2015 IEEE
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