40-µJ passively CEP-stable seed source for ytterbium-based high-energy optical waveform synthesizers

We demonstrate experimentally for the first time a ~40-µJ two-octave-wide passively carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable parametric front-end for seeding an ytterbium (Yb)-pump-based, few-optical-cycle, high-energy optical parametric waveform synthesizer. The system includes a CEP-stable white-light continuum and two-channel optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs) in the near- and mid-infrared spectral regions spanning altogether a two-octave-wide spectrum driven by a regenerative amplifier. The output pulses are compressed and fully characterized to demonstrate the well-behaved spectral phase of this seed source.