7 mu m, ultrafast, sub-millijoule-level mid-infrared optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier pumped at 2 mu m

We present a novel all-fiber pumped optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) architecture to generate self-carrier-to-envelope-phase stable, sub-eight-optical-cycle duration pulses at 7 mu m wavelength approaching millijoule-level pulse energy at 100 Hz repetition rate. The system yields a peak power of 1.1 GW and, if focused to the diffraction limit, would reach a peak intensity of 7 x 10(14) W/cm(2). The OPCPA is pumped by a 2 mu m Ho:YLF chirped pulse amplifier to leverage the highly efficient and broadband response of the nonlinear crystal ZGP. The 7 mu m seed at 100 MHz is generated via difference frequency generation from an Er:Tm:Ho multi-arm fiber frequency comb, and a fraction of its output optically injects the Ho:YLF amplifier. While the pulse bandwidth at 7 mu m is perfectly suited for nonlinear and spectroscopic applications, current parameters offer, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the possibility to explore strong-field physics in an entirely new wavelength range with a ponderomotive force 77 times larger than from an 800 nm source. The overall OPCPA system is very compact and provides a new tool for investigations directly in the molecular fingerprint region of the electro-magnetic spectrum or to drive high harmonic generation to produce fully coherent x-rays in the multi-kiloelectron-volt range and possibly zeptosecond temporal waveforms. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America