Driving nonlinear processes in scientific and upcoming industrial applications has been a topic with increasing interest and activities in the last years. Examples are the production of very short wavelengths via direct driven plasma light-sources (incoherent) or high-harmonic generation (coherent), optical parametric chirped pulse amplification to different wavelengths and shorter pulses and direct pulse shortening via self-phase modulation and subsequent compression down to the few-cycle pulse duration regime. We report on multi100W ultrafast laser sources with 1ps pulse durations and below and <10mJ pulse energies based on the InnoSlab laser-concept. Achieved beam qualities are M2<1.2 at average power stabilities in the 0.1% regime. Measured pulse stabilities are around 1% (rms) and pulse intensity contrasts well exceed 50dB for preceding or following pulses. These stability values together with the high average pulse power are very well suited for use as drivers of nonlinear optical processes. We show that these sources can be integrated into very compact housings with full computer control which additionally eases the practical use for further processing of the radiation.
Quasi-phase matching (QPM) can be used to increase the conversion efficiency of the high harmonic generation
(HHG) process. We observed QPM with an improved dual-gas foil target with a 1 kHz, 10 mJ, 30 fs laser
system. Phase tuning and enhancement were possible within a spectral range from 17 nm to 30 nm. Furthermore
analytical calculations and numerical simulations were carried out to distinguish QPM from other effects, such
as the influence of adjacent jets on each other or the laser gas interaction. The simulations were performed with
a 3 dimensional code to investigate the phase matching of the short and long trajectories individually over a
large spectral range.
Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) is the most promising method for providing compact, wavelength tunable, high power, femtosecond lasers. We have recently achieved a 112 W OPCPA with wavelength tunability around 800 nm and 30 fs pulse duration in burst mode (100 kHz in a 800 µs burst at 10 Hz). In this work, we discuss the various laser architectures and the critical parameters in achieving similar laser parameters but in continuous operation.
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