2-GW peak power 71-fs pulses at 50 kHz based on nonlinear compression of a fiber CPA system

Abstract

We present a high peak and average power laser system with ultrashort pulses at high repetition rates. Pulse shortening and peak power enhancement of a state-of-the-art fiber laser system is achieved by utilizing nonlinearity, namely selfphase modulation and subsequent compression in a chirped mirror compressor. The nonlinear interaction is achieved by propagation in a noble gas filled hollow core fiber with an inner diameter of 200 μm and a length of 0.5 m. A total second dispersion of -7000 fs² is applied by a chirped mirror compressor resulting in ultrashort pulses of 71 fs duration. This is achieved by coupling 400 MW, 800 fs pulses from the CPA system to the Xenon filled hollow core fiber. The average power at the output of the compressor is measured to be 10 W at 50 kHz repetition rate resulting in 200 μJ pulse energy. Hence, the compressed pulses have a peak power of more than 2 GW. Consequently, the pulses of the CPA system are shortened by a factor of ten and the peak power is enhanced by a factor of 5. In addition this approach offers further peak and average power scalability.