Relativistic few-cycle pulses with high contrast from picosecond-pumped OPCPA

For experiments in plasma, nuclear, and high-energy physics, there is a strong demand for laser pulses exhibiting relativistic intensity, few-cycle pulse duration, and a very high contrast.Here we present a picosecond-pumped optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system delivering pulses at 10 Hz repetition rate with the following key parameters: a compressed pulse duration of less than 7 fs (close to the Fourier limit), a...