Feng C, Dorrer C, Jeon C, Roides R, Webb B, Bromage J. Analysis of pump-to-signal noise transfer in two-stage ultra-broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification.
OPTICS EXPRESS 2021;
29:40240-40258. [PMID:
34809370 DOI:
10.1364/oe.441108]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA), pump temporal intensity modulation is transferred to the chirped-signal spectrum via instantaneous parametric gain and results in contrast degradation of the recompressed signal. We investigate, for the first time to our knowledge, the pump-to-signal noise transfer in a two-stage ultra-broadband OPCPA pumped by a single laser and show the dependence of pump-induced signal noise, characterized both before and after pulse compression, on the difference in pump-seed delay in the two stages. We demonstrate an up-to-15-dB reduction of the pump-induced contrast degradation via pump-seed delay optimization. Experiments and simulations show that, even when parametric amplifiers are operated in saturation, the pump-seed delay can be used to minimize the pump-induced contrast degradation that is attributed largely to the noises from the unsaturated edges of the pulse and that of the beam.
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