Recent Advances in Optical Parametric Amplifiers

Dear Colleagues,

Laser Optical Parametric Amplifiers (OPAs) have since the 60s made it possible to circumvent laser gain media properties to provide otherwise inacessible parameters. They are used for ultrashort-pulse amplification: down to single cycle operation, but also in petaWatt (PW) lasers yielding few 10s of fs pulses. The absence of energy deposition allows for contrast enhancement in traditional solid-state based PW lasers, and permits taking advantage of high repetition rate operation (when driven by diode pumped media). The tuning capabilities from interaction geometry design or Quasi-Phase-Matching (QPM) allow for laser pulse generation from the UV to the deep IR, and even tunable outputs. OPAs has been a vital technique to overcome the limited amount of suitable lasing media versus the many requirements that exist for state-of-the art facilities and their applications, and has seen strong adoption by the laser industry as a robust tool that can provide unique properties.

This special issue invites manuscripts that introduce the recent advances in “optical parametric laser technology”. All theoretical, numerical, and experimental papers are accepted. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Ultra-broadband/few-cycle laser amplification;
• High average-power laser technology;
• Advances in nonlinear media: large apertures, QPM designs and progresses;
• Tunable OPA design and integration in laser systems;
• Synchronized multiple sources;
• PW level OPCPA based lasers;
• OPAs operating in the Mid-IR, deep mid-IR or in the vis-UV spectral range;
• State-of-the-art commercial systems;
• Optical Parametric Oscilators (OPOs).

Dr. Hugo Pires
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• parametric amplifiers
• ultrashort lasers
• opcpa
• parametric oscillators
• mid-IR lasers
• tunable lasers