title: 16.6 J chirped femtosecond laser pulses from a diode-pumped Yb:CaF2 amplifier.
abstract: We report the amplification of laser pulses at a center wavelength of 1034 nm to an energy of 16.6 J from a fully diode-pumped amplifier using Yb:CaF2 as the active medium. Pumped by a total optical power of 300 kW from high-power laser diodes, a gain factor of g=6.1 was achieved in a nine-pass amplifier configuration agreeing with numerical simulations. A measured spectral bandwidth of 10 nm full width at half-maximum promises a bandwidth-limited compression of the pulses down to a duration of 150 fs. These are, to our knowledge, the most energetic laser pulses achieved from a diode-pumped chirped-pulse amplifier so far.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hornung
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keppler
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schorcht
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hellwing
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liebetrau
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Körner
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sävert
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siebold
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schnepp
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.forename: Malte C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kaluza