title: Single-grating-mirror intracavity stretcher design for chirped pulse regenerative amplification.
abstract: We report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, an innovative design concept for intracavity pulse stretching in a regenerative amplifier, employing a single "grating-mirror" based on a leaky-mode grating-waveguide design. The very compact and flexible layout allows for femtosecond pulses to be in principle easily stretched up to nanosecond durations. The design has been tested in a diode-pumped Yb:CALGO regenerative amplifier followed by a standard transmission grating compressor. Sub-200-fs pulses (stretched pulses ≈110  ps) with 205-μJ energy at 20-kHz repetition rate have been demonstrated. In order to prove the robustness and potential for energy scaling of leaky-mode grating-waveguide intracavity stretcher, we generated stretched pulses with energies of up to ≈700  μJ (400-ps long) at a lower repetition rate of 10 kHz. A simple model is proposed for the study of the cavity in presence of induced spatial chirp.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caracciolo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kemnitzer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rumpel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guandalini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pirzio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kienle
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdou Ahmed
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aus der Au
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agnesi