A 5 μm wavelength laser for dielectric laser acceleration

A high-energy 5 μm laser source which will be used to pump a dielectric photonic structure for GV-per-meter electron acceleration has been designed and modeled. The source utilizes two-step ultrafast optical parametric amplification and can be pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser. The experimental implementation and system integration are in progress. We describe 5-μm seed pulse generation using optical parametric generation in AgGaS2 and ZnGeP2 crystals and the commissioning of a 2-μm pump source, including supercontinuum generation and the preliminary results on the amplification of the signal beam at 1.3 μm.