Design of kW level picosecond compressor of pump pulses for high power OPCPA

We present a design of a high average power vacuum compressor unit for 1 kHz repetition rate pump laser operating at 1030 nm. The unit comprises two compressors and two SHG units located in a common vacuum vessel. Both compressors are designed with GDD of -270.5 ps2 for compressing high energy, 1J, 500 ps pulses to 1.5 ps duration with efficiency that exceeds 88.5%. We also considered the feasibility of high efficiency, average power conversion to 515 nm in a range of nonlinear crystals in vacuum. The calculated temperature profiles in large aperture crystals are compared with temperature acceptance bandwidths for the second harmonic generation. It is concluded that in LBO and YCOB crystals the conversion efficiency can exceed 60%, thus allowing generation of 1 kHz train of 1.5 ps pulses at 515 nm with energy exceeding 0.5 J that will be used for pumping the high energy amplifier stages of a femtosecond OPCPA system.

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