Abstract
Abstract We demonstrate an efficient ultrafast source with 195 fs pulse duration, 54 W average power at 200 kHz repetition rate and near diffraction-limited beam quality. The compact setup incorporates a thin-disk Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier (RA) and a subsequent nonlinear pulse compression stage with periodic-layered Kerr media (PLKM), which is one of the multiple-thin-solid-plate schemes based on nonlinear resonator theory. In virtue of the formation of quasi-stationary spatial soliton in PLKM, the near diffraction-limited beam quality of the RA remained almost undisturbed after post-compression. The nonlinear pulse compression module is simple and efficient with a transmission of 96%. To the best our knowledge, for pulse energy over 200 μJ, this is the highest output power reported for the multiple-thin-solid-plate scheme. This source manifests an economical combination to mitigate the bandwidth limitations of Yb-based high-power chirped pulse amplifiers.
Highlights
The combination of high quantum and Stokes efficiency of Yb-based lasers with state-of-the-art fiber, Innoslab and thin-disk architectures facilitate efficient and power scalable femtosecond lasers [1,2,3,4,5]
Nonlinear spectral broadening by self-phase modulation (SPM) during propagations in regenerative and multipass amplifiers are impressive alternatives, which, demand elaborated control [13,14,15,16]
The integration of periodic layered Kerr media (PLKM) device and Yb-based high power chirped pulse amplifiers will favor an ultrafast source with high efficiency and great beam quality
Summary
The combination of high quantum and Stokes efficiency of Yb-based lasers with state-of-the-art fiber, Innoslab and thin-disk architectures facilitate efficient and power scalable femtosecond lasers [1,2,3,4,5]. The integration of PLKM device and Yb-based high power chirped pulse amplifiers will favor an ultrafast source with high efficiency and great beam quality. In this contribution, we present a compact and efficient ultrashort laser source, which comprised a Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier and a subsequent close-to lossless periodic-layeredKerr-media-based nonlinear pulse compression stage. To the best our knowledge, for pulse energy over 200 μJ, this is the highest output power reported for the multiple-thin-solid-plate scheme This configuration successfully compensated the gain bandwidth limitation of Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier. The demonstrated source is promising for further power scaling and compression to sub-50 fs to drive high field physical processes and bright secondary radiation at high average power
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have