Kilohertz gain-switched laser operation and femtosecond regenerative amplification in Cr:forsterite

Author

Shcheslavskiy, Vladislav ; Zhavoronkov, Nickolay ; Petrov, Valentin ; Noack, Frank ; Bouvier, Marcel

Author_Institution

Max-Born-Inst. for Nonlinear Opt. & Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Berlin, Germany

Volume

35

Issue

8

fYear

1999

fDate

8/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1123

Lastpage

1133

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of the optimum operating regime in a gain-switched Cr:forsterite laser at a repetition frequency of 1 kHz with special attention to temperature-dependent and parasitic absorption effects and proper resonator design. On the basis of the results achieved, me demonstrate highly efficient (13% extraction efficiency) operation of a femtosecond regenerative amplifier based on Cr:forsterite and operating near room temperature with a novel BBO Pockels cell that is highly resistant to optical damage. Chirped pulse amplification raises the pulse energy to 355 μJ in ≈30 cavity round trips which corresponds to an amplification factor of ≈5.5×10⁵. The nearly transform limited 200-μJ 135-fs compressed pulses near 1.25 μm have a peak power of ≈1.5 GW. Frequency doubling with 52% conversion efficiency in LBO produces femtosecond pulses of 104-μJ energy in the visible near 625 nm

Keywords

Q-switching; chirp modulation; chromium; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser tuning; magnesium compounds; optical harmonic generation; optical pulse compression; optical pulse generation; solid lasers; 1 kHz; 1.25 mum; 1.5 GW; 104 muJ; 13 percent; 135 fs; 200 muJ; 298 K; 355 muJ; 52 percent; 625 nm; BBO; BaB2O4; BaB₂O₄; Cr:forsterite laser; LiB₃O₅; Mg₂SiO₄:Cr; Pockels cell; amplification factor; cavity round trips; chirped pulse amplification; conversion efficiency; extraction efficiency; femtosecond pulses; femtosecond regenerative amplification; femtosecond regenerative amplifier; frequency doubling; gain-switched laser; highly efficient operation; kilohertz gain-switched laser operation; nearly transform limited compressed pulses; optical damage; optimum operating regime; parasitic absorption effects; peak power; pulse energy; repetition frequency; resonator design; room temperature; temperature-dependent effects; visible range; Absorption; Frequency; Optical design; Optical pulses; Optical resonators; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse compression methods; Repeaters; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.777211

Filename

777211