Frontend light source for short-pulse pumped OPCPA system

Abstract

We present the development of a light source for generating optically synchronized seed pulses both for the parametric amplifier chain and the pump-laser chain of the Petawatt Field Synthesizer (PFS), which is currently under construction at MPQ. The PFS system aims at delivering waveform-controlled few-cycle laser pulses with PW-scale peak power using optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). Methods of generating the broadband near-infrared (NIR) seed pulses for the OPCPA chain by spectral broadening using few-cycle pulses are presented. We also demonstrate the generation of a supercontinuum spanning up to three octaves (270-1500 nm) using cascaded hollow-core fibers which supports sub-cycle pulse duration.