High-repetition-rate sub-5-fs pulses with 12 GW peak power from fiber-amplifier-pumped optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system delivering pulses with more than 12GW peak power is presented. Compression to sub-5fs, 87µJ and 5.4fs, 100µJ is realized at the 30kHz repetition rate. A high-energy fiber chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 1mJ pulse energy and nearly transform-limited pulses is used to achieve ultrabroadband amplification in two 2mm beta-barium borate crystals. Precise pulse shaping is used to compress the pulses to a few percentages of their transform limit. Assuming diffraction limited focusing (d<2µm), peak intensities as high as 1018W/cm2 can be reached.