Prospect for 100TW/90fs X-ray driver using optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers

The optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) technique is pro mising for constructing a 100-TW/90-fs laser system. This laser system cons ists of a diode-pumped Nd:phosphate oscillator, two LBO preamplifiers and a final power KDP amplifier. A noncollinear BBO-I optical parametric amplifi er pumped by a Q-switched and frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser has been demon strated. The temporal ly-stretched chirped signal laser pulses with a bandw idth of 36nm(FWHM) are amplified without limitation in bandwidth and distor tion in the spectrum. The gain bandwidth is very sensitive to the, pump-sig nal angle. Variation of this angle of similar to1.5mrad can significantly r educe the amplified bandwidth and results in a significant distortion of th e amplified spectrum.