Effects of nonlinear refractive index on few-cycle PW-class OPCPA

We present here simulations for an OPCPA laser design similar to the Petawatt Field Synthesizer (PFS), which aims to deliver pulses with 5 fs and 3 J energy. Our simulations typically include the effects of depletion, diffraction, walk-off, and dispersion, with the possibility to take multiple second-order nonlinear interactions (e.g. parasitic SHG of the pump) as well as quantum noise and nonlinear refractive index effects into consideration.