Megawatt peak power level sub-100 fs Yb:KGW oscillators.

Haitao Zhao,Arkady Major

doi:10.1364/oe.22.030425

Abstract

We report on the first demonstration, to the best of our knowledge, of sub-100 fs pulses directly from the diode-pumped mode-locked Yb:KGW bulk oscillators operated at a low repetition rate. The 36 MHz oscillator delivered 78 fs pulses with pulse energy of 50 nJ and peak power of 0.65 MW. The cavity was extended by inserting a 1:1 imaging telescope, allowing 85 fs pulses to be generated at a repetition rate of 18 MHz. The pulse energy up to 83 nJ was reached, corresponding to a peak power as high as 1 MW. Sub-100 fs regime was achieved by dual action of the Kerr-lens and saturable absorber (KLAS) mode locking.

Highlights

Over the past decade there has been significant effort devoted to the development of ultrashort pulse lasers with high peak powers [1]
It is based on dual action of Kerr-lens and saturable absorber (KLAS) mode locking which was implemented in an extended cavity bulk Yb:KGW laser and resulted in generation of 85 fs pulses with 1.0 MW of peak power
We report on the generation of sub-100 fs pulses with MW peak power level directly from the long cavity Yb:KGW bulk oscillators operated at either 36 MHz or 18 MHz

Summary

Introduction

Over the past decade there has been significant effort devoted to the development of ultrashort pulse lasers with high peak powers [1]. In this work we present an alternative approach to reach such peak power regime It is based on dual action of Kerr-lens and saturable absorber (KLAS) mode locking which was implemented in an extended cavity bulk Yb:KGW laser and resulted in generation of 85 fs pulses with 1.0 MW of peak power. The enhanced performance of this laser resulted from the KLAS mode locking approach which combined the fast saturable absorber-like action of Kerr-lens mode locking (KLM) with the self-starting operation of a SESAM This laser system forms an excellent platform to explore its potential in scaling of the peak power through the pulse energy at lower repetition rates. We report on the generation of sub-100 fs pulses with MW peak power level directly from the long cavity Yb:KGW bulk oscillators operated at either 36 MHz or 18 MHz

Experimental setup

Results and discussion

Conclusion