Subterawatt femtosecond pulses in the mid-infrared range: new spatiotemporal dynamics of high-power electromagnetic fields

Laser-induced filaments in the mid-infrared

“…As a part of the experimental approach demonstrated in [76], high-power ultrashort mid-IR driver pulses were delivered by a laser system (figure 4) consisting of a solid-state ytterbium laser with an amplifier, a three-stage optical parametric amplifier (OPA), a grating-prism (grism) stretcher, a Nd:YAG pump laser, a three-stage OPCPA system, and a grating compressor for mid-IR pulses [12,13]. The compressed-pulse idler-wave OPCPA output had a central wavelength of 3.9 μm, a pulse width of 80 fs, and an energy up to 30 mJ.…”

“…We therefore choose to work with an input field at a central wavelength λ 0 =3.9 μm. Sub-100 fs pulses with peak powers orders of magnitude higher than the selffocusing threshold for YAG (P cr ≈30 MW at λ 0 =4 μm) can be delivered at this central wavelength by mid-infrared OPCPA sources [11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…It all changed when a new generation of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers (OPCPA) capable of delivering high-peak-power sub-100 fs pulses in the mid-infrared was developed [10,11]. Laser systems of this class have allowed the laser filamentation in the atmosphere to be extended to the mid-infrared range [12], allowing subterawatt femtosecond laser pulses to be transmitted through the atmosphere for the first time [12,13]. Laser filaments in the mid-IR have been shown to offer a powerful source of high-energy multioctave, mid-ultraviolet-to-midinfrared supercontinua [14][15][16], enable efficient compression of high-power pulses in the mid-IR [17], open new horizons in standoff detection and remote sensing [18][19][20], and offer new solutions to ultrafast photonics [21][22][23].…”

Multi-mJ Scaling of 5-Optical Cycle, 3 µm OPCPA

“…Existing state-of-the-art OPCPA systems operating at 3 µm can broadly be grouped into two classes: (i) high repetition rate sources (≥100 kHz) that operate at the multi-µJ-level, with the main reference systems at ICFO (131 µJ, 97 fs, 160 kHz), ELI Alps (152 µJ, 38 fs, 100 kHz), MBI Berlin (30 µJ, 70 fs, 100 kHz), and CELIA (8 µJ, 85 fs, 100 kHz) [11][12][13][14], and (ii) a very limited group with sources that can operate close or at the mJ-level but at lower (10-10,000 Hz) repetition rates, with the main reference systems at RIKEN (21 mJ, 70 fs, 10 Hz), Shanghai (13.3 mJ, 111 fs, 10 Hz), Singapore (2.7 mJ, 50 fs, 10 kHz), JILA (0.85 mJ, 420 fs, 1 kHz), and CAS Beijing (0.52 mJ, 100 fs, 1 kHz) [15][16][17][18][19]. State-of-the-art, high repetition rate mid-IR sources usually rely on periodically-poled lithium niobate (PPLN) for the non-linear medium [11,12,18] while mJ-level systems use mainly bulk material crystals, such as lithium niobate (LiNbO 3 , LN) [15,16] and potassium titanyl arsenate (KTiOAsO 4 , KTA) [20,21] (although in the latter case the output is already closer to 4 µm), clearly evidencing the potential of these crystals in withstanding and operating at high optical intensity levels.…”

Generation of synchronized high-intensity x-rays and mid-infrared pulses by Doppler-shifting of relativistically intense radiation from near-critical-density plasmas

“…At the same time, in recent years there has been a sharp increase in the efficiency of sources in this range based on the parametric amplification of light. Peak pulse powers have now been reached at the subterawatt level in the range of 3-4 µm [30] and the gigawatt level in the range of 5-9 µm [31], which made it possible to achieve relativistic intensities and, in particular, to demonstrate the generation of relativistic high harmonics [32][33][34].…”