Phase dependence of Kerr-based parametric amplification

Kerr instability amplification can amplify over an octave of spectrum, a broad bandwidth supporting few-cycle pulses. However, dispersion management in this regime is crucial, and we explore the parameters required to maintain the ultrashort pulse undergoing amplification. At low pump intensities, we experimentally observe an interference between the strongly chirped supercontinuum seed and weakly amplified pulse, reproduced in our model by manipulating the seed dispersion. Extending our model to cases of high gain, our simulation predicts the dispersion is near zero, and the phase can be compensated preamplification to generate near-transform-limited amplified few-cycle pulses. We discuss chirping the seed pulse to avoid saturation, a route for generating sub-mJ few-cycle pulses in a single stage from Kerr instability chirped-pulse amplification.