Femtosecond thin-disk Yb:KYW regenerative amplifier

We report a compact thin-disk Yb:KYW regenerative amplifier system. Two different concepts are investigated to obtain either subpicosecond pulses with up to 160 μJ or a pulse energy of 20 μJ with a pulse width of about 300 fs. The first concept uses intra-cavity group-velocity dispersion compensation with Gires–Tournois interferometer mirrors to avoid pulse stretching during amplification. The onset of nonlinear effects in this concept inhibits the generation of shorter pulse durations at this energy level. Shorter pulses can be achieved with the second concept, which is based on dispersive pulse stretching during amplification and uses pulse compression after amplification with a grating compressor. Repetition rates up to 45 kHz are demonstrated.This revised version was published online in May 2005. The Article Category was removed.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Directly diode-pumped millijoule subpicosecond Yb:glass regenerative amplifier

An Yb:glass regenerative amplifier directly side pumped by four 20-W diodes is demonstrated. By use of a novel pumping scheme and introduction of cylindrical optics into the cavity, a free-running average output power as great as 4 W with a TEM(00) -like mode was achieved from the bare cavity, with a 0.56 pump duty cycle. When the regenerative amplifier injected, 1-mJ 200-fs FWHM pulses were obtained following compression by use of 2-ms pump pulses and up to a 150-Hz repetition rate.     

Compact diode-pumped 1.1 kW Yb:YAG Innoslab femtosecond amplifier

We demonstrate a compact diode-pumped Yb:KGW femtosecond oscillator-Yb:YAG Innoslab amplifier master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) with nearly transform-limited 636 fs pulses at 620 W average output power, 20 MHz repetition rate, and beam quality of M(x)(2) = 1.43 and M(y)(2) = 1.35. By cascading two amplifiers, we attain an average output power of 1.1 kW, a peak power of 80 MW, and a 615 fs pulse width in a single linearly polarized beam. The power-scalable MOPA is operated at room temperature, and no chirped-pulse amplification technique is used.     

30-mJ, diode-pumped, chirped-pulse Yb:YLF regenerative amplifier

A diode-pumped chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier with a cooled Yb:YLF crystal has been developed. The output pulse energy is 30 mJ at 20-Hz repetition rate. A high effective extraction efficiency of 68% is obtained, which is attributed to reduced saturation fluence at low temperature and to a high effective pulse energy fluence during regenerative amplification. After pulse compression by use of a parallel grating pair, 18-mJ pulse energy and 795-fs pulse duration are obtained.     

Design and alignment criteria for a simple, robust, diode-pumped femtosecond Yb:KYW oscillator

We present an efficient, single-diode pumped, prismless Yb:KYW femtosecond laser and study its performance in the soft aperture, Kerr lens mode-locked operation. Practical directions are given to identify the conditions under which high-power, stable mode-locking can be obtained.     

Broadband nonlinear optical conversion of a high-energy diode-pumped picosecond laser

We report on a high-energy picosecond pulse generation out made of a simple and inexpensive all-solid-state diode-pumped oscillator. The system produces 200 nJ, 7-ps pulses with an average power as high as 3 W, using laser components with a total price of all opto-mechanical components of about $10,000. High-power broadband continuum generation is demonstrated in a specially selected single mode GeO₂-doped fiber.     

Single-frequency operation of diode-pumped Yb:KYW at 1003.4 nm and 501.7 nm by intracavity second harmonic generation

Thanks to its high emission cross section around 1000 nm, Yb:KYW is a good candidate for laser operation near 1000 nm as shown in our figure of merit. We demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, laser operation of Yb:KYW at 1003.4 nm. The single-frequency operation was achieved in a ring oscillator whereas the second harmonic generation in the blue was carried out with a KNbO₃ crystal put inside the cavity. More than 500 mW at 1003.4 nm and 35 mW at 501.7 nm were produced simultaneously. This visible wavelength corresponds to an iodine transition previously studied with argon ionized lasers for metrological applications. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.72.Hj; 42.72.Bj     

Kerr Lens Mode-locked Operation of Yb:KYW Laser

Using a modified ABCD-matrix approach accounting for nonlinear refraction in active medium,the ranges of cavity parameters that provide a mode-locking of Yb∶KYW-laser in usual z-fold cavity configuration are determined.Taking the cavity parameters that provide a most efficient mode locking and based on fluctuation model,a numerical simulation of laser operation is performed.In the calculations the side-band pump power of 6W at 982 nm is used in 1 cm length KYW crystal with 1 cm×0.005 cm beam cross section.Calculations show that self-starting operation is possible with these parameters and dispersion compensation allows for bandwidth-limited ultrashort pulse generation.The shortest pulse duration was determined to be about 200 fs with self-starting buid-up time of 130 μs.Such a built-up time is comparable and even shorter than that one for the lasers with semiconductor saturable absorbers.The region of negative dispersion provided by prism pair for a stable ultrashort pulse generation was determined to be (-17000～-42000)fs2.     

Cascaded mode-locking of a spectrally controlled Yb:KYW laser

Self-starting and stable mode-locking of an Yb:KYW laser in the picoseconds pulse regime has been achieved by exploiting a positive cascaded Kerr lens in periodically poled KTP. The use of a volume Bragg grating (VBG), for locking the output spectrum of the laser, was essential to achieve a stable mode-locked operation in this wide gain bandwidth laser material. The laser emitted stable, nearly transform-limited pulses with a duration of 16 ps, at a repetition rate of 210 MHz, and with an energy of 3.2 nJ. The mode-locked spectrum was centred at 1,029.1 nm and featured a FWHM bandwidth of 85 pm, which was effectively determined by the VBG. Combination of a large cascaded Kerr nonlinearity with spectral limiting by a VBG represents so far the best opportunity for stable mode-locking of a broadband laser to produce near-transform-limited picosecond pulses.     

Directly diode-pumped Yb3+:SrY4(SiO4)3O regenerative amplifier

We report a regenerative amplifier based on an Yb-doped apatite crystal: Yb3+:SrY4(SiO4)3O (Yb:SYS). We obtained 420-fs pulses at a central wavelength of 1066 nm with an energy of 100 microJ at 300 Hz after compression. To the best of our knowledge, this system is the first regenerative amplifier based on an Yb:SYS crystal and provides duration among the shortest ones generated by a directly diode-pumped regenerative amplifier.     

Directly diode-pumped high-energy Ho:YAG oscillator

We report on the high-energy laser operation of an Ho:YAG oscillator resonantly pumped by a GaSb-based laser diode stack at 1.9 μm. The output energy was extracted from a compact plano-concave acousto-optically Q-switched resonator optimized for low repetition rates. Operating at 100 Hz, pulse energies exceeding 30 mJ at a wavelength of 2.09 μm were obtained. The corresponding pulse duration at the highest pump power was 100 ns, leading to a maximum peak power above 300 kW. Different pulse repetition rates and output coupling transmissions of the Ho:YAG resonator were studied. In addition, intracavity laser-induced damage threshold measurements are discussed.     

Dye laser multipass amplifier system

A system is described for producing high power, narrow bandwidth pulses by injecting electro-optically a dye laser pulse to a multipass flashlamp pumped amplifier cavity. Pulses of 280 MHz bandwidth have been generated with peak powers of 100 kW at 5 Hz repetition rate. A simple modification allows 300 ns long pulse trains to be obtained with pulse separations determined by the round trip time of the cavity.     

High-energy, diode-pumped, picosecond Yb:YAG chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier for pumping optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

A diode-pumped, cryogenic-cooled Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier utilizing gain-narrowing has been developed. A 1.2-ns chirped-seed pulse was simultaneously amplified and compressed in the regenerative amplifier, which generated a 35-ps pulse with ~8-mJ of energy without a pulse compressor. Second-harmonics of the amplified pulse was used to pump picosecond two-color optical parametric amplification.     

Diode-pumped Yb:CaF_2 multipass amplifier producing 50 mJ with dynamic analysis for high repetition rate operation

The dynamic thermal issues of the Yb:CaF \(_{2}\) crystals within a multi-tens-mJ-energy multipass amplifier operating in the 20–100 Hz repetition rate range and pumped in quasi-cw regime have been studied at different timescales. Thermal response times of the system have been precisely investigated and analyzed, for the first time to our best knowledge in such amplifiers. This study includes a dual timescale analysis: in the long-time-scale (second) with direct thermography mapping and in the millisecond range with thermal lensing in a pump-probe configuration. Very atypical positive lens behavior with fluorites will also be presented and discussed. This complete analysis is used to demonstrate the capability of \(\hbox {Yb:CaF}_{2}\) multipass amplifier systems for operating the amplifier at 20 Hz with 57 mJ and 100 Hz with 32-mJ stable regime. Indeed, high repetition rate multipass amplifier has been realized for the first time with \(\hbox {Yb:CaF}_{2}\) and for this energy. The results have been analyzed precisely to take into account the thermal issues and excellent beam quality, with a \(M^2\) of 1.1. The pointing stability of 20 μrad has been measured documenting the reliability of the high repetition rate mJ amplifier.     

Spatial chirp in Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier

The spatial chirp generated in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is numerically investigated based on the onedimensional(1D) and two-dimensional(2D) Frantz–Nodvik equations. The simulation indicates that the spatial chirp is induced by the spatially inhomogeneous gain, and it can be almost eliminated by utilization of proper beam profiles and spot sizes of the signal and pump pulses, for example, the pump pulse has a top-hatted beam profile and the signal pulse has a super-Gaussian beam profile with a relatively larger spot size. In this way, a clear understanding of spatial chirp mechanisms in the Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier is proposed, therefore we can effectively almost eliminate the spatial chirp and improve the beam quality of a high-power Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier system.     

高效率多程折叠Nd:YVO4激光放大器

采用具有近共焦、非稳腔特点的多程折叠光路结构,使激光光束多次通过增益介质,实现了高提取效率的激光放大器.实验中在注入22W种子激光的条件下,以43.9%的提取效率得到了63 W的激光输出,斜效率超过52%,激光放大器的输出光束质量从种子激光的M2X=2.08,M2Y=1.92变为M2X=2.84,M2Y=1.79.     

100-fs diode-pumped Yb:KGW mode-locked laser

We have developed a mode-locked diode-pumped Yb:KGW laser generating 100-fs pulses with an output power of 126 mW. The corresponding optical spectrum has a 13.4-nm FWHM bandwidth and is centered at 1037.4 nm. In the multiple-pulsing regime, bound states of solitons with rotating phase difference and separated by 917.5 fs were observed. We compare the performance of the Yb:KGW crystal to that of an Yb:KYW crystal with the same thickness and Yb concentration. PACS 42.55.Rz; 42.65.Re; 42.65.Tg     

High-power diode-pumped passively mode-locked Yb:YAG lasers

We obtained 74-kW peak power and 3.5-W average output power in 1-ps pulses from a diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser at 1030 nm that was passively mode locked with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror. Another laser produced 57-kW peak power and as much as 8.1-W average output power in 2.2-ps pulses, split into two nearly diffraction-limited beams (M(2)<1.2) . To our knowledge, these are by far the highest reported peak and average output powers from a diode-pumped mode-locked laser in this pulse-duration regime.     

7.6-W diode-pumped femtosecond Yb:KGW laser

We have demonstrated a high power diode-pumped mode-locked femtosecond Yb:KGW laser with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror(SESAM). By using an output coupler with 10% transmittance, the laser delivered 160-fs pulses with average output power of 7.6 W at a repetition rate of 78 MHz, corresponding to pulse energy of 97 nJ and peak power of 606 kW.     

High-power diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser

A high-power diode-pumped passively mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser was demonstrated. An average output power of 3.80W with a pulse duration of 433 fs at a repetition rate of 90.9MHz was obtained at a wavelength of 1050 nm using a 2% output coupler. A peak power of 96.5kW was also obtained. To the best of our knowledge, these are the highest reported average power and peak power for a diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:YAG ceramic laser.