High-fidelity front-end for high-power, high temporal quality few-cycle lasers
Abstract
A 80 μJ, 6 fs, CEP-stable high-contrast injector is demonstrated. The device relies on standard pulse post-compression in hollow-core fiber followed by a temporal filter based on cross-polarized wave generation. Pulses with a Gaussian spectrum over 350 nm, centered at 750 nm, are generated. Temporal measurements show that the contrast of the few-cycle pulses is enhanced on a femtosecond and picosecond time scale. The carrier-envelope phase stability is preserved (0.3 rad RMS). These performances make the system an ideal seed laser for high-power, high-contrast OPCPA systems.