Generation of few-cycle radiation pulses in the IR spectral range (1.3 – 2.2 μm) using wide-aperture BBO crystals pumped by a terawatt Ti : sapphire laser

Different schemes of parametric amplification (PA), aimed at designing a source of femtosecond near-IR (1.3 – 2.2 μm) radiation, are compared by solving a system of truncated equations describing three-wave mixing. A terawatt Ti : sapphire laser with an energy of 60 mJ and a pulse duration of 50 fs is used as a pump source for PA schemes. The dependences of the output energies, pulse durations, and spectral widths of signal and idler waves on the BBO crystal length for two types of phase matching and on the group-delay dispersions for the pump and signal waves is investigated. It is shown that in the case of direct PA, using a type-II phase-matching BBO crystal of optimal length, one can obtain signal (1.333 μm) and idler (2 μm) waves with pulse durations of 34 and 32 fs, respectively, with a total energy conversion efficiency up to 40%. The application of double chirping scheme increases the total conversion efficiency to 60%; however, the spectral width of generated pulses decreases. The spectral width can only be increased by reducing the conversion efficiency. In this case, a more simple and compact solution is the scheme of direct PA with a transform-limited pump pulse.