Numerical simulation of the amplification of picosecond laser pulses in tapered semiconductor amplifiers and comparison with experimental results

High-peak-power pulse generation from a monolithic master oscillator power amplifier at 15 μm

“…In the range of currents from 3 to 4.5 A, the pulse duration is almost constant, as expected in MOPA devices [14]. We attribute the power degradation and the slight pulse broadening for amplifier currents above 4 A to thermal effects, as previously commented.…”

“…The pulse duration decreases from more than 200 ps down to around 100 ps, while the peak power has a maximum at around I PA 4 A. If the optical pulse were linearly amplified, the peak power would be expected to increase as a function of the amplifier bias, with no variation of the pulse shape and duration [14]. Contrarily, in our experiments, the pulse duration decreases rapidly for I PA between 1.5 A and 3 A.…”

Picosecond pulses from wavelength-swept continuous-wave Fourier domain mode-locked lasers

“…In general, pulse energy can be increased using semiconductor-based master oscillator power amplifier systems. Whereas in case of single-spatial-mode semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) the achievable pulse energies typically range from a few pJ to few tens of pJ 3,9 , higher energies become feasible using multispatial-mode semiconductor-based amplifiers like inverse bowtie SOAs 10 or tapered amplifiers [11][12][13][14] . Increased pulse energies can be achieved using the semiconductor-based eXtreme chirped pulse amplification concept 9 , where pulses are stretched temporally before amplification and the output energy of the recompressed pulse then exceeds the fundamental energy-storage limit of the semiconductor gain medium.…”