Sub-5-fs multi-TW optical parametric synthesizer

The endeavour of generating shorter and shorter light pulses lead to the optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) technique, which provides considerable broader gain bandwidth corresponding to a pulse duration of one to three optical cycles. Systems with such a short duration and multi-terawatt to petawatt power levels provide a unique tool for attosecond [1] and laser-plasma physics [2]. This way the generation of single attosecond pulses with unprecedented energy opens up the route to nonlinear X-ray science.