23W peak power picosecond pulses from a single-stage all-semiconductor master oscillator power amplifier

Using a single-stage all-semiconductor master oscillator-power amplifier, we generate narrow-band laser pulses of 23?W peak power at 1063?nm wavelength. These pulses of 40?ps length FWHM have a variable repetition rate and pulse energies around 2?nJ, which exceeds previous realizations and makes them ideally suited for second harmonic generation. With a spectral filter, an extinction ratio above 36?dB could be achieved at nearly 10?W peak power. We use a novel spectral method to reliably determine pulse energies independently of the background level.