Energy extraction improvement in picosecond amplifiers by pulse tilting

We report a novel tilted pulse amplification technique that, in contrast with the chirped-pulse amplification method, allows stretching of ultrashort pulses independently upon the initial pulse bandwidth. A gain factor of 4.5 and good reconstruction of a 15 ps pulse after stretching to 200 ps in a double-pass end-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier have been achieved.