Optimisation of wide-band parametric amplification stages of a femtosecond laser system with coherent combining of fields

For the first time the pulses with the energy of ~150 mJ and the spectrum corresponding to the transform-limited duration of ~20 fs amplified in three-stage parametric amplifiers have been coherently combined in a dual-channel femtosecond laser system. The efficiency of coherent combining of above 90% has been obtained at the residual relative time jitter of amplified pulses of 110 as. For the first time the modulation of spectrum was experimentally observed under the parametric amplification of a wideband femtosecond radiation in crystals placed in series. The model of parametric luminescence evolution was developed which allows one to calculate the whole range of the frequency-angular spectrum that, in addition to simulations of the contrast of amplified pulses, gives the possibility of optimising the amplifier efficiency. The results of experiments on measuring the contrast are presented and compared with the calculated data. Methods for enhancing the contrast in the created laser system are analysed. Possible schemes of multibeam pumping of the output cascade are considered for obtaining a petawatt power in the laser system based on cascades of a parametric amplifier in LBO crystals which is being developed at the Institute of Laser Physics of SB RAS.