In the work just accepted for published in journal Optica, Enrico Ridente et al. have demonstrated the amplification of 15 fs pulses at 2.1 µm, employing a hybrid phase-matching scheme for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification. A combination of two BBO crystals with type-I and type-II phase-matching placed in close vicinity (picture, bottom left) is utilized as a single amplification stage. This allows for a greatly simplified layout, that uses just two stages the OPCPA. Building a compact and easy set up makes it more robust against fluctuations and more reliable for the day-to-day operation. These are all crucial features for any kind of application. The amplified ultra-short pulses are used to feed a lot of projects running in the lab, spanning from waveform synthesizer to 2D-imaging of electric fields.
Picture: Matt Weidman