Idler Pulse Compression using an Identical Positive Stretcher/Compressor Combination in Optical-Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification

We have proposed and demonstrated a very simple and robust femtosecond optical-parametric chirped-pulse amplification scheme in which an even order dispersion of an idler pulse is compensated by passing through an identical positive dispersive material used for temporal stretching a signal pulse. By compressing the idler pulses having a negatively chirp in this manner, high power sub-100 fs pulses were successfully obtained with only a transparent glass block used for the stretcher and compressor. A feasible design of real world femtosecond laser systems employing this scheme is also discussed.