Table-top high-energy 7 um OPCPA and 260 mJ Ho:YLF pump laser

Christophe Simon-Boisson; Daniel Sanchez; Jens Biegert; Kevin Zawilski; Luke Maidment; Peter Schunemann; Tobias Steinle; Ugaitz Elu; Uwe D. Zeitner

arxiv: 1906.08163 · v1 · pith:OU2U3POGnew · submitted 2019-06-19 · ⚛️ physics.optics · cond-mat.other

Table-top high-energy 7 um OPCPA and 260 mJ Ho:YLF pump laser

Ugaitz Elu , Tobias Steinle , Daniel Sanchez , Luke Maidment , Kevin Zawilski , Peter Schunemann , Uwe D. Zeitner , Christophe Simon-Boisson

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Jens Biegert

This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-25 20:14 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ⚛️ physics.optics cond-mat.other

keywords pulsessystemenergyhigh-energyopcpapumpchaincompact

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The pith

Demonstration of a 260 mJ Ho:YLF-pumped ZGP OPCPA system generating 0.75 mJ, 8-cycle 7 μm pulses with HHG up to order 13.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The authors assembled a laser chain starting from an Er:Tm:Ho fiber master oscillator power amplifier that seeds a chain of optical parametric amplifiers based on zinc germanium phosphide crystals. A separate holmium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride amplifier, itself pumped by thulium fiber lasers, supplies 260 mJ pump pulses at 2052 nm. By reversing the chirp sign between amplification stages, energy extraction improves and the output pulses compress efficiently in bulk barium fluoride to 188 fs duration. The system runs at 100 Hz with 0.8 percent rms stability. Pulse quality is verified by driving high-harmonic generation in zinc selenide, producing harmonics up to order 13 with good spectral contrast.

Core claim

Using 21.7 mJ of the available pump energy, we generate 0.75-mJ-energy pulses at 7 um due to increased efficiency with a chirp-inversion scheme. The pulse quality of the system's output is shown by generating high harmonics in ZnSe which span up to harmonic order 13 with excellent contrast.

Load-bearing premise

The assumption that passive all-optical synchronization between the fiber seeder and the Ho:YLF pump is sufficient to maintain phase stability and temporal overlap across the OPCPA chain without measurable degradation at the reported energies.

read the original abstract

We present the state of the art of a compact high-energy mid-infrared laser system for TW-level 8-cycle pulses at 7 um. This system consists of an Er:Tm:Ho:fiber MOPA which serves as the seeder for a ZGP-based OPCPA chain in addition to a Ho:YLF amplifier which is Tm:fiber pumped. Featuring all-optical synchronization, the system delivers 260-mJ pump energy at 2052 nm, 16-ps duration at 100 Hz with a stability of 0.8 % rms over 20 min. We show that chirp inversion in the OPCPA chain leads to excellent energy extraction and aids in compression of the 7-um pulses to 8 optical cycles (188 fs) in bulk BaF2 with 93.5 % efficiency. Using 21.7 mJ of the available pump energy, we generate 0.75-mJ-energy pulses at 7 um due to increased efficiency with a chirp-inversion scheme. The pulse quality of the system's output is shown by generating high harmonics in ZnSe which span up to harmonic order 13 with excellent contrast. The combination of the passive carrier-envelope phase stable mid-infrared seed pulses and the high-energy 2052 nm picosecond pulses makes this compact system a key enabling tool for the next generation of studies on extreme photonics, strong field physics and table-top coherent X-ray science.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

The paper is an experimental demonstration; the central claim rests on measured hardware performance rather than free parameters, new axioms, or invented entities.

axioms (1)

standard math Standard principles of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification and pulse compression in bulk media
Invoked implicitly to design and interpret the OPCPA chain and BaF2 compressor.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5827 in / 1197 out tokens · 28275 ms · 2026-05-25T20:14:18.461801+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Lean theorems connected to this paper

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IndisputableMonolith/Cost/FunctionalEquation.lean washburn_uniqueness_aczel unclear

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unclear
Relation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.

Using 21.7 mJ of the available pump energy, we generate 0.75-mJ-energy pulses at 7 um due to increased efficiency with a chirp-inversion scheme.

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