title: Amplification of femtosecond optical pulses using a double confocal resonator.
abstract: We experimentally examine a class of multipass amplifiers based on an open double confocal resonator. A preamplifier provides a gain of 800. An intermediate-stage amplifier produces pulse energies of 2 microJ for only 1.4 W of pump power at a repetition rate of 10 kHz. A third structure, which includes a four-prism sequence, provides on each pass adjustable forms of the four basic pulse-shaping mechanisms of saturable gain, saturable absorption, group-velocity dispersion, and self-phase modulation, as well as spectral filtering. This latter structure also reversibly lengthens the pulse duration in the gain medium from 50 fsec to over 450 fsec.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fork
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Avramopoulos
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Fragnito
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Schehrer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hirlimann