AMPLIFICATION OF ULTRASHORT LASER PULSES BY THE OPCPA METHOD

SOFIA laboratory is a test facility for the laser system PALS (Prague Asterix Laser System) and its major task is getting know-how of the OPCPA technique (Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplication), a modern method of the amplication of ultrashort laser pulses. The SOFIA system is a hybrid laser where the oscillator beam is generated in a solid-state optical parametric oscillator (OPO) tuned to 1315 nm (the iodine spectral line) and then amplied in two gaseous iodine ampliers. The 1315 nm beam is converted to 438 nm in KDP crystals (4 GW/cm2) and pumps non-linear crystals (KDP, LBO) as parametric ampliers. The signal beam for the parametric amplication is produced by Ti:sapphire laser and stretched to 300 ps in a pulse stretcher (single diffraction grating, Öffner telescope). PACS: 42.60.By, 42.65.Re, 42.65.Yj Amplication of ultrashort pulses is a rapidly evolving eld in the development of high power or high repetition laser systems. Ultrashort pulses render a possibility of attaining ultrahigh peak powers. The well established CPA technique (Chirped Pulse Amplication) is currently used when chirping of the pulse and subsequent amplication are possible. The technique is not ap-plicable for narrow spectral band lasers such as photodissociation iodine lasers ( = 1315:24 nm