Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of high-contrast $1054\mathrm{nm}$ short pulses based on a mid-IR optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier with frequency doubling. Measurement-limited contrast higher than ${10}^9$ is obtained over a large temporal range from ~100 ps to $3\mathrm{ps}$ before the peak of the main pulse. With the potential of pulse-energy scalability, the demonstrated scheme incorporating further chirped-pulse amplification in the near-IR range is applicable to petawatt power-level laser systems.

© 2010 Optical Society of America

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