Compact millijoule Yb3+:CaF2 laser with 162 fs pulses

• DOI: 10.1364/oe.418319
• Publication Date: 2021-02-18T17:30:32Z
• Authors: Markus Loeser; Constantin Bernert; Daniel Albach; Karl Zeil; Ulrich Schramm; Mathias Siebold
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

We report on a compact diode-pumped, chirped pulse regenerative amplifier system with a pulse duration of 162 fs and an output pulse energy of 1 mJ before as well as 910 µJ after compression optimized for the probing of ultrafast relativistic laser-plasma processes. A chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) acts as a combined pulse stretcher/compressor representing a robust solution for a CPA laser system in the millijoule range. Yb3+:CaF2 is used as gain medium to support a large bandwidth of 16 nm (FWHM) when spectral gain shaping is applied. Chirped mirrors compensate for any additional dispersion introduced to the system.