Abstract

Design of an expansion and recompression system for amplification of sub-20-fs optical pulses to multiterawatt peak powers is presented. The system allows one to eliminate spatial inhomogeneities and cubic and quartic phase errors that make existing designs unsuitable for use with pulses much shorter than 100 fs. We experimentally demonstrate >10,000 times expansion and recompression of ∼25-fs optical pulses.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Chirped-pulse amplification of 55-fs pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate in a Ti:Al₂O₃ regenerative amplifier

J. V. Rudd, G. Korn, S. Kane, Jeff Squier, Gérard Mourou, and Philippe Bado
Opt. Lett. 18(23) 2044-2046 (1993)

Phase control for production of high-fidelity optical pulses for chirped-pulse amplification

A. Sullivan and W. E. White
Opt. Lett. 20(2) 192-194 (1995)

Compensation of higher-order frequency-dependent phase terms in chirped-pulse amplification systems

W. E. White, F. G. Patterson, R. L. Combs, D. F. Price, and R. L. Shepherd
Opt. Lett. 18(16) 1343-1345 (1993)

Fourth-order-dispersion limitations of aberration-free chirped-pulse amplification systems

S. Kane and J. Squier
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(5) 1237-1244 (1997)

Aberration-free stretcher design for ultrashort-pulse amplification

G. Cheriaux, P. Rousseau, F. Salin, J. P. Chambaret, Barry Walker, and L. F. Dimauro
Opt. Lett. 21(6) 414-416 (1996)