Saturation control of an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) is a light technique that provides the combination of broad spectral gain bandwidth and large energy, directly supporting few-cycle pulses with multi-terawatt (TW) peak powers. Saturation in an OPCPA increases stability conversion efficiency system. However, distinct components experience different do not saturate under same conditions, which reduces performance. Here, we describe simple robust approach to control saturation for all components. The demonstrated optimal overall gain, bandwidth. We experimentally obtain improvement pulse energy by more than 18%. This easily implemented any existing system shaper maximize its output.