YLF Chirped-pulse Amplification Research Articles

Ho:YLF amplifier with Ti:Sapphire frontend for pumping mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier

We present a Ho:YLF Chirped-Pulse Amplification laser for pumping a longwave infrared Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplifier at a 1 kHz repetition rate. By utilizing a Ti:Sapphire laser as a frontend, 5-μJ seed pulses at 2051 nm laser pulse are generated in a Dual-Chirp Optical Parametric Amplifier, which are amplified to 28 mJ pulses with a pulse duration of 5.6 ps. The scheme offers a potential driver for two-color (800 nm and 8 μm) high harmonic generation with an increased keV x-ray photon flux.

Ho:YLF chirped pulse amplification at kilohertz repetition rates - 4.3 ps pulses at 2 μm with GW peak power.

A 2 μm chirped pulse amplification source generates 55 mJ picosecond pulses at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The system consists of a high-gain Ho:YLF regenerative amplifier (RA) operating in the single-energy regime and a dual-rod Ho:YLF power amplifier. Pulses of ∼10 mJ energy from the RA are linearly scaled up to 55 mJ in the power amplifier, corresponding to a high overall extraction efficiency of >20%. The system displays an exceptional high stability with a pulse-to-pulse rms as low as 0.3%. Pulse compression is performed up to the 25 mJ energy level, resulting in pulses close to the Fourier-transform limit with a duration of 4.3 ps and a peak power of 4.4 GW.

Sub-picosecond pulses at 100 W average power from a Yb:YLF chirped-pulse amplification system

We present a high-repetition-frequency, diode-pumped, and chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 106 W average output power with excellent beam quality (M(2)=1.3), based on cryogenically cooled Yb:YLF. 1 nJ seed pulses, derived from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, are first amplified to 1 mJ pulse energy at 10 kHz repetition frequency in a regenerative amplifier. The second-stage, multipass amplifier increases the pulse energy to 10.6 mJ, resulting in a spectral width of 2.2 nm. The pulses are compressed to 865 fs in duration, which is 1.26 times the transform limit.