High-energy, kHz-repetition-rate, ps cryogenic Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier.
We demonstrate amplification of picosecond laser pulses to 40?mJ at a 2?kHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) from a two-stage cryogenic chirped-pulse Yb:YAG amplifier, composed of a regenerative amplifier (RGA) and a two-pass booster amplifier. The RGA produces 8.2mJ of energy at 2kHz PRF and 13.2mJ at 1kHz PRF with excellent energy stability (approximately 0.3% rms) and beam quality (M(2)<1.1). Pulse stretching and compression are achieved by using a chirped fiber Bragg grating and a multilayer dielectric grating pair, respectively. Compressed 15?ps pulses from the RGA are obtained with a throughput efficiency of approximately 80% (approximately 6.5 mJ for 2kHz). The booster amplifier further amplifies the pulses to 40mJ at 2kHz PRF, and approximately 32 mJ, approximately 15 ps pulses are expected after compression. The amplifier chain seeded from a femtosecond Yb-fiber laser enables the optical self-synchronization between signal and pump in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier applications.
Hong
Kyung-Han
KH
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics,Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. kyunghan@mit.edu
Gopinath
Juliet T
JT
Rand
Darren
D
Siddiqui
Aleem M
AM
Huang
Shu-Wei
SW
Li
Enbang
E
Eggleton
Benjamin J
BJ
Hybl
John D
JD
Fan
Tso Yee
TY
Kärtner
Franz X
FX