Diode-pumped thin-disk Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier

• DOI: 10.1007/s003400050291
• Publication Date: 2002-08-25T08:19:44Z
• Authors: C. Hönninger; I. Johannsen; M. Moser; G. Zhang; A. Giesen; U. Keller
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy

Abstract. A passively modelocked 750-fs Yb:YAG oscilla-tor is used as the seed laser for a diode-pumped thin diskYb:YAG regenerative amplifier. Pulse energies of 180mJ areobtained at repetition rates of up to 750Hz,and120mJ pulseswere achieved at 1kHz. The amplified pulse duration was2 : 3ps, resulting in a pulse peak power of 78MW.Thein-crease in pulse duration during amplification is attributed togain narrowing in the amplifier material rather than to intra-cavity dispersion.PACS: 42.60; 42.55; 42.65Compact sources of ultrashort laser pulses at microjoule tomillijoule energy levels are of interest for several applica-tions, such as medical surgery, industrial machining, or non-linear frequency conversion. The development of powerfullaser diodes, matching the absorption wavelengths of manysolid state materials, made it possible to build compact andefficient modelocked oscillators and regenerative amplifiers.Typical pulse durations of diode-pumped passively mode-locked oscillators range from below 100fs to a few ps [1].However, most experiments on diode-pumped regenerativeamplifiers have been performed in the regime of 10 ps andmore. For example, pulse energies of 90mJ and 750 mJ wereextracted from cw diode-pumped Nd:YLF regenerative am-plifiers with 2Wand 15 W of pump power, respectively[2,3].Furthermore, 2