In this Letter we report on the generation of 830 W compressed average power from a femtosecond fiber chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system. In the high-power operation we achieved a compressor throughput of about 90% by using high-efficiency dielectric gratings. The output pulse duration of 640 fs at 78 MHz repetition rate results in a peak power of 12 MW. Additionally, we discuss further a scaling potential toward and beyond the kilowatt level by overcoming the current scaling limitations imposed by the transversal spatial hole burning.
We report on the observation and experimental characterization of a threshold-like onset of mode instabilities, i.e. an apparently random relative power content change of different transverse modes, occurring in originally single-mode high-power fiber amplifiers. Although the physical origin of this effect is not yet fully understood, we discuss possible explanations. Accordingly, several solutions are proposed in this paper to raise the threshold of this effect.
The temporal behavior of mode instabilities in active large mode area fibers is experimentally investigated in detail. Thus, apart from the onset threshold of mode instabilities, the output beam is characterized using both high-speed camera measurements with 20,000 frames per second and photodiode traces. Based on these measurements, an empiric definition of the power threshold of mode instabilities is introduced. Additionally, it is shown that the temporal dynamics show a transition zone between the stable and the unstable regimes where well-defined periodic temporal fluctuations on ms-timescale can be observed. Finally, it is experimentally shown that the larger the mode-field area, the slower the mode-instability fluctuation is. The observations support the thermal origin of mode instabilities.
Coherently enhancing laser pulses in a passive cavity provides ideal conditions for high-order harmonic generation in a gas, with repetition rates around 100 MHz (refs 1,2,3). Recently, extreme-ultraviolet radiation with photon energies of up to 30 eV was obtained, which is sufficiently bright for direct frequency-comb spectroscopy at 20 eV (ref. 4). Here, we identify a route to scaling these radiation sources to higher photon energies. We demonstrate that the ionization-limited attainable intracavity peak intensity increases with decreasing pulse duration. By enhancing nonlinearly compressed pulses of an Yb-based laser and coupling out the harmonics through a pierced cavity mirror, we generate spatially coherent 108 eV (11.45 nm) radiation at 78 MHz. Exploiting the full potential of the demonstrated techniques will afford high-photon-flux ultrashort-pulsed extreme-ultraviolet sources for a number of applications in science and technology, including photoelectron spectroscopy, coincidence spectroscopy with femtosecond to attosecond resolution and characterization of components and materials for nanolithography
Rare earth-doped fibres are a diode-pumped, solid-state laser architecture that is highly scalable in average power. The performance of pulsed fibre laser systems is restricted due to nonlinear effects. Hence, fibre designs that allow for very large mode areas at high average powers with diffraction-limited beam quality are of enormous interest. Ytterbium-doped, rod-type, large-pitch fibres (LPF) enable extreme fibre dimensions, i.e., effective single-mode fibres with mode sizes exceeding 100 times the wavelength of the guided radiation, by exploiting the novel concept of delocalisation of higher-order transverse modes. The non-resonant nature of the operating principle makes LPF suitable for high power extraction. This design allows for an unparalleled level of performance in pulsed fibre lasers.
We report on the experimental demonstration of a fiber chirped- pulse amplification system capable of generating nearly transform-limited sub 500 fs pulses with 2.2 mJ pulse energy at 11 W average power. The resulting record peak power of 3.8 GW could be achieved by combining active phase shaping with an efficient reduction of the acquired nonlinear phase. Therefore, we used an Ytterbium-doped large-pitch fiber with a mode field diameter of 105 µm as the main amplifier.
We report on an ytterbium-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system delivering millijoule level pulse energy at repetition rates above 100 kHz corresponding to an average power of more than 100 W. The compressed pulses are as short as 800 fs. As the main amplifier, an 80 microm core diameter short length photonic crystal fiber is employed, which allows the generation of pulse energies up to 1.45 mJ with a B-integral as low as 7 at a stretched pulse duration of 2 ns. A stretcher-compressor unit consisting of dielectric diffraction gratings is capable of handling the average power without beam and pulse quality distortions. To our knowledge, we present the highest pulse energy ever extracted from fiber based femtosecond laser systems, and a nearly 2 orders of magnitude higher repetition rate than in previously published millijoule-level fiber CPA systems.
Mode instabilities, i.e. the rapid fluctuations of the output beam of an optical fiber that occur after a certain output power threshold is reached, have quickly become one of the most limiting effects for the further power scaling of fiber laser systems. Even though much work has been done over the last year, the exact origin of the temporal dynamics of this phenomenon is not fully understood yet. In this paper we show that the origin of mode instabilities can be explained by taking into account the interplay between the temporal evolution of the three-dimensional temperature profile inside of the active fiber and the related waveguide changes that it produces via the thermo-optical effect. In particular it is proposed that non-adiabatic waveguide changes play an important role in allowing energy transfer from the fundamental mode into the higher order mode. As it is discussed in the paper, this description of mode instabilities can explain many of the experimental observations reported to date.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.