Optical parametric waveform synthesizer and method for synthesizing optical waveforms

An optical parametric waveform synthesizer being configured for creating optical waveforms, comprising

• a pump source device being arranged for creating at least one sequence of pump pulses,
• a seed source device being arranged for creating a sequence of master seed pulses and at least one sequence of slave seed pulses,
• an optical parametric amplifier device having
• (a) a master channel with at least one optical parametric amplifier unit being arranged for creating a sequence of master channel laser pulses by non-linear optical interactions using one of the at least one sequence of pump pulses and the sequence of master seed pulses, and
• (b) at least one slave channel with at least one optical parametric amplifier unit being arranged for creating at least one sequence of slave channel laser pulses by non-linear optical interactions using one of the at least one sequence of pump pulses and the at least one sequence of slave seed pulses, wherein
• the master channel and the at least one slave channel are configured such that the sequence of master channel laser pulses and the at least one sequence of slave channel laser pulses have different spectral intensity characteristics,
• a beam combiner device being arranged for coherently combining the master channel laser pulses and the slave channel laser pulses, thus synthesizing the optical waveforms to be obtained,
• detector devices being arranged for sensing a relative arrival time between the master channel laser pulses and the slave channel laser pulses at the beam combiner device, and
• a control system being arranged for controlling a relative temporal relationship between the master channel laser pulses and the slave channel laser pulses on a basis of output signals of the detector devices, wherein
• the detector devices are arranged for further sensing pulse temporal and phase properties of the master and slave seed pulses and a relative phase between the master channel laser pulses and the slave channel laser pulses at the beam combiner device, and
• the control system is configured for controlling the relative temporal relationship and a relative phase relationship between the master channel laser pulses and the slave channel laser pulses by an orthogonal control of the seed source device and the optical parametric amplifier device.