High average power transform limited picosecond laser with flexible repetition rate and pulse duration.

Abstract

This Letter presents a pulsed, Fourier transform limited 1030 nm laser with a variable pulse duration between 47 and 733 ps resulting in a spectral bandwidth of roughly 1 to 10 GHz. The laser system is based on ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers and acousto-optic and electro-optic modulation technology. The repetition rate can be set arbitrarily between 1 and 10 MHz. After three sequential amplifier stages, the average output power reaches a maximum of over 60 W. The particular fiber amplifier geometry allows to prevent the emergence of unwanted nonlinear effects. Due to its unique features, the laser system lends itself to a variety of applications wherever flexibility in terms of pulse duration and corresponding Fourier limited bandwidth are required, such as laser cooling at storage rings, lidar applications, or coherent molecular spectroscopy.