Coherent synthesis of ultra-broadband optical parametric amplifiers

We report on coherent synthesis of two ultra-broadband optical parametric amplifiers, each compressed by chirped mirror pairs, resulting in almost-octave-spanning (520-1000 nm) spectra supporting nearly single-cycle sub-4 fs pulse duration. Synthesized pulse timing is locked to less than 30 as by a balanced optical cross-correlator. The synthesized pulse is characterized by two-dimensional spectral interferometry and has a 3.8 fs duration.