Ultra-broadband chirped-pulse optical parametric amplifier with angularly dispersed beams

We propose a BBO-based chirped-pulse optical parametric amplifier employing an angularly dispersed signal beam to yield a full-octave gain bandwidth, sufficient for the direct amplification of sub-10-fs pulses. Numerical simulations show that this power-scalable amplifier configuration has a small-signal gain of 10(7) at a pumping intensity of 45 GW/cm(2). The additional phase-matching flexibility compared to alternative configurations permits the suppression of parasitic second harmonic generation of the signal beam.