title: Scalability of components for kW-level average power few-cycle lasers.
abstract: In this paper, the average power scalability of components that can be used for intense few-cycle lasers based on nonlinear compression of modern femtosecond solid-state lasers is investigated. The key components of such a setup, namely, the gas-filled waveguides, laser windows, chirped mirrors for pulse compression and low dispersion mirrors for beam collimation, focusing, and beam steering are tested under high-average-power operation using a kilowatt cw laser. We demonstrate the long-term stable transmission of kW-level average power through a hollow capillary and a Kagome-type photonic crystal fiber. In addition, we show that sapphire substrates significantly improve the average power capability of metal-coated mirrors. Ultimately, ultrabroadband dielectric mirrors show negligible heating up to 1 kW of average power. In summary, a technology for scaling of few-cycle lasers up to 1 kW of average power and beyond is presented.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hädrich
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rothhardt
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Demmler
authors.forename: Maxim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tschernajew
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liem
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plötner
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fabian
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Limpert
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tünnermann