Abstract

Recently, the FOPA concept has proven to overcome the universal dilemma of gain narrowing present in ultrashort laser amplifiers [1]. It rests upon spreading a broad input seed spectrum along the Fourier plane (FP) of a 4f setup where different frequencies can be amplified independently of each other in a parametric process. These results on high energy amplification (gain of 15) are complemented in the current work by realizing FOPA as high gain stage with > 2000 times amplification from nJ to the μJ level. With this work we like to highlight FOPA as a way to amplify high contrast laser pulses with a high gain (up to 12.000) without reduction of ps pulse contrast. Furthermore, FOPA bears the potential to increase the pre-pulse contrast upon amplification within the time window of the pump pulse as will be discussed at the conference.

© 2014 Optical Society of America