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Peer-Review Record

High-Contrast Frontend for Petawatt-Scale Lasers Using an Optically Synchronized Picosecond Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

Photonics 2022, 9(12), 945; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9120945
by Hao Xue 1,2,†, Meizhi Sun 2,†, Linjun Li 2,3, Lijuan Qiu 2,3, Zhantao Lu 2,3, Xinglong Xie 1,2,*, Guoli Zhang 2,3, Xiao Liang 2, Ping Zhu 2, Xiangbing Zhu 1,2,*, Qingwei Yang 2, Ailin Guo 2, Haidong Zhu 2, Jun Kang 2 and Dongjun Zhang 2
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2: Anonymous
Reviewer 3:
Photonics 2022, 9(12), 945; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9120945
Submission received: 27 October 2022 / Revised: 20 November 2022 / Accepted: 5 December 2022 / Published: 7 December 2022

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors proposed an interesting scheme for an high contrast front end for high power laser system. Generally, I found the proposed setup quite complex. The novel idea is based on the assumption that using a chirped pump on an OPCPA system will create a higher spontaneous emission compared to a narrow band pump. In my opinion, this assumption requires more investigation and the gain in contrast it should be estimated. Usually the ASE from an ps OPCPA is covered by the ps pedestal generated by the stretcher and/or by the residual spectral phase error. The author also use an XPW to create a clean seed pulse for the LBO OPA stage: it will be not simpler to amplify directly the pulse from the femtosecond oscillator? Why the XPW is necessary?

Comparing the spectrum at the input of the final OPCPA stage with respect to the output, the output spectrum is broader than the input, with additional spectral component in the blue part. What it is the source of this difference? If it is due by the saturation of the OPA stage, I am expecting back conversion in the central part of the beam and I think it is important to provide data on the beam quality of the amplified pulse.

Finally, I found interesting the idea of use GaAs plate to compensate the B-Integral on the pump laser.

 

Author Response

Thanks for your suggestions about this Article.

We are so sorry that we did’t offer enough references to prove using a chirped pump on an OPCPA system will create a higher spontaneous emission compared to a narrow band pump. So we add some references about OPCPA in our article,.From references ‘Lureau, François, et al. "High-energy hybrid femtosecond laser system demonstrating 2× 10 PW capability." High Power Laser Science and Engineering 8 (2020)’and‘Yu, Linpeng, et al. "High-contrast front end based on cascaded XPWG and femtosecond OPA for 10-PW-level Ti: sapphire laser." Optics express 26.3 (2018): 2625-2633’,we compare the results of these articles with ours ,we discover that a chirped pump on an OPCPA system will create a higher spontaneous emission compared to a narrow band pump.

The reason why we use an XPW to create a clean seed pulse for the LBO OPA stage is to get high signal-to-noise ratio. The signal-to-noise ratio can be achieved by using XPW.

As you mentioned, why comparing the spectrum at the input of the final OPCPA stage with respect to the output, the output spectrum is broader than the input, with additional spectral component in the blue part. Blue spectral component has always been around, but the seed pulse after chirped pulse amplification by a regenerative amplifier, the edge of the spectrum is amplified more than the middle of spectrum. That’s what led this phenomenon. We add it on our article.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript presents an original method for obtaining ~5 ps OPCPA pump pulses optically synchronized with the signal by using a SLM CW seed laser and OPA. The presented results of measuring the temporal contrast convince of the viability of this method.

The manuscript deserves publication after checking, clarifying and correcting many inaccuracies and issues highlighted in the attached file, as well as significant revision of the English. Also, the introduction needs to cover a larger number of references that use OPCPA pump pulses in the range from 1 to 10 ps.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thanks for your suggestions about this Article.We have revised the article according to your suggestion.We added some new references about using OPCPA pump pulses in the range from 1 to 10ps, such as ‘Lureau, François, et al. "High-energy hybrid femtosecond laser system demonstrating 2× 10 PW capability." High Power Laser Science and Engineering 8 (2020)’and‘Yu, Linpeng, et al. "High-contrast front end based on cascaded XPWG and femtosecond OPA for 10-PW-level Ti: sapphire laser." Optics express 26.3 (2018): 2625-2633’.

Thank you for pointing out some language errors in our article, we revised it one by one. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper presents a scheme for picosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) using a Fourier-transform-limit 5.0 ps pulse optically sheared from a single-longitudinal-mode 1064 nm CW laser.

The paper may be accepted for publication in Photonics before the authors give the following improvement.

1. The abstract section is not relevant, physically speaking. What are the new ideas and concepts?

2. The first sentence of the abstract is too long; I recommend that the authors rewrite the abstract.

3. In the introduction, the authors give an overview of studies addressing the issues of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), and the pulse laser. From my perspective, the authors have recently missed developments in the field. To give the readers a comprehensive overview about this promising field I kindly suggest including the following references into the manuscript: Diouf, M., Lin, Z., Harling, M. et al. Sci Rep 12, 14064 (2022), SHG like light sheet  was recently demonstrated in that paper using a pulse laser.

4. line 103: But from ref. we see.. I recommend that the authors to complete the sentence and correct the typos. 

5. Fig 2, I recommend that the authors give the definition of this S1064P404B

6. in line 161 crystals are all [011], typos I recommend that the authors to put correctly the number of the ref.

7. Equations 1 and 2, I  recommend that the authors to define all the parameters and corrected the typos.

 

 

Author Response

Thanks for your suggestions about this Article.We have revised the article according to your suggestion.

1,The scheme of picesecend optical optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) using a Fourier-transform-limit 5.0 ps pulse optically sheared from a single-longitudinal-mode 1064 nm CW laser, amplified and frequency-doubled is a new approach about seed pulse amplification.What's different from other approaches is that we use narrow spectrum and narrow pulse width as the same time.This is something that no one has ever done.

2, According to your suggestion. We rewrote the abstract。

  • We have carefully read the document you mentioned, which is of great significance and reference value. We have included it in our article as reference [33]. Thanks again for your advice
  • We changed ‘But from ref’ to ‘But from reference [35]’
  • S1064P404Bis the number of the picture, This number has no effect on the article, we decided to delete it.
  • The [011] of line 161 is the cut orientations of the two BaF2 crystals.
  • We have defined all the parameters and modified the typos under formula 1and 2.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

I recommend that the paper be published, the authors addressed all of the comments and suggestions.

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