Ho:Ylf Amplifier With Ti:Sapphire Frontend For Pumping Mid-Infrared Optical Parametric Amplifier

We present a Ho:YLF Chirped-Pulse Amplification laser for pumping a longwave infrared Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplifier at a 1kHz repetition rate. By utilizing a Ti:Sapphire laser as a frontend, 5-mu J seed pulses at 2051nm laser pulse are generated in a Dual-Chirp Optical Parametric Amplifier, which are amplified to 28 mJ pulses with a pulse duration of 5.6 ps. The scheme offers a potential driver for two-color (800nm and 8 mu m) high harmonic generation with an increased keV x-ray photon flux.