28-W, 217 fs solid-state Yb:CAlGdO_4 regenerative amplifiers

Abstract

A new high-performance Yb:CaAlGdO(4) (Yb:CALGO) regenerative amplifier is demonstrated. Pumped by 116 W at ≈980 nm and seeded by means of a 92 fs oscillator, it generates as much as 36 W of average output power with chirped pulses, and 28 W with 217 fs compressed pulses at 500 kHz repetition rate. This corresponds to 56 μJ of pulse energy and 258 MW peak power. The compressed pulses have a time-bandwidth product of 0.69 and could be shortened further with an improved compressor setup.

Yb:CaGdAlO4laser under high pumping power: high performances and singularities

“…Very recently this crystal has also been integrated in a thin-disk geometry [8] demonstrating in CW up to 150 W (multimode) and 50 W (single-mode) and up to 30 W in femtosecond regime. These experiments clearly demonstrate the interests of Yb:CALGO in classical bulk or thin-disk configurations for high power lasers [9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Nonlinear Regenerative Amplifiers Overcoming the Gain Bandwidth Limitation

“…Indeed, with a emission bandwidth of ~60 nm spanning from 1010 nm to 1070 nm and its thermal conductivity of 9.7 W.K -1 (undoped matrix), Yb:CALGO holds great promises with respect to average power scaling. Very encouraging results have already been demonstrated with this crystal in oscillator and linear CPA systems [26][27][28][29][30]. To decrease further the pulse duration in amplified systems, we have applied the nonlinear regenerative amplifier technique to this crystalline laser medium.…”

“…To generate even shorter pulses, broader gain bandwidth media with very disordered matrices [9][10], or a combination of gain media [11][12][13] can be used. The latter can be done either in series, where the beam to be amplified propagates successively in gain media with slightly shifted gain bandwidth, or in parallel using recently demonstrated femtosecond spectral coherent combining architectures [14][15].…”

200 kHz 55 W Yb^3+: YVO_4-based chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier

“…Another approach to the implementation of RA systems is based on bulk regenerative amplifiers. The highest output power reported to date for bulk RAs is 28 W in an Yb:CALGO operating at 500 kHz, with 217 fs pulses [7]. The output power of about 21 W at 200 kHz PRF with 200 fs pulse duration has been obtained in a Yb:KGW dual-crystal system [8].…”