Enhanced contrast few-cycle frontend based on hybrid amplification for petawatt-class lasers

We present a 10 mJ-class laser system based on a hybrid, femtosecond optical parametric and negatively chirped Ti:Sa-based amplification architecture. Output pulses with 13 mJ energy, 14.4 fs transform limited duration, and high spatio-spectral quality are reached at 100 Hz repetition rate centered at 788 nm wavelength. By compressing 1 mJ energy, a pulse duration of 15.5 fs is measured in combination with an intensity contrast higher than 10¹² already 15 ps before the main pulse. The presented architecture can be a robust and reliable solution for seeding sub-17 fs high intensity lasers with ultrahigh contrast at up to 100 Hz repetition rate.