Optical wave turbulence: Towards a unified nonequilibrium thermodynamic formulation of statistical nonlinear optics

Since the proof-of-principle demonstration of optical parametric amplifier to efficiently amplify chirped pulses in 1992, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) became a widely recognized and rapidly developing technique for high-power femtosecond pulse generation. In the meantime, we are witnessing an exciting progress in the development of powerful and ultrashort pulse laser systems that employ chirped pulse parametric amplifiers. These systems cover a broad class of femtosecond lasers, with output power ranging from a few gigawatts to hundreds of terawatts, with a potential of generating few-optical-cycle pulses at the petawatt power level. In this paper, we discuss the main issues of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification and overview recent progress in the field.

Trends in chirped pulse optical parametric amplification

We discuss the main issues of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification and overview recent progress in the field. Although we distinguish between the two operating modes of modern chirped pulse parametric amplifiers, OPCPA and NOPA, we reveal that both represent the same technique and share a common concept.

Progress in Chirped Pulse Optical Parametric Amplifiers

We present a new scheme for an optical resonator for production of Bessel and Bessel–Gauss light beams. The resonator with Bessel modes is composed of two plane mirrors with an axicon placed close to one of them. If this mirror is concave, the modes are Bessel–Gauss light beams. Analytical expressions relating parameters of the resonator and characteristics of its modes are obtained and analyzed. The results are verified with the Fox–Li algorithm. The resonator scheme was implemented in an experiment to confirm the possibility of the generation of zero-order Bessel beams. It was found that multipass modes can also oscillate in the resonator if its apertures are large enough.

Axicon-based Bessel resonator: analytical description and experiment.

A Marcinkevičius

Papers

Travelling wave optical parametric generator pumped by a conical beam

Parametric superfluorescence excited in a nonlinear crystal by two uncorrelated pump beams

Transverse phase-matching in stimulated Raman scattering by a Bessel beam

Second-order Stokes and anti-Stokes coupling in stimulated Raman scattering by Bessel beam

Angular distribution of second harmonic radiation generated by Bessel beam