New Materials for Short-Pulse Amplifiers

Laser amplifiers seek high power, efficiency, and short pulse durations. Research laboratories in this field have focused their investigations toward new laser materials that can be efficiently diode pumped, sustain high-power pumping, and have broad emission bandwidth to achieve ultrashort pulse amplification. This is why, for more than ten years now, new Yb-doped materials have been intensively investigated. In the actual state of the art, they represent the more promising and successful materials for these kinds of applications. In this paper, we will do a short review of the last and more impacting discoveries and demonstrations in this field over the last few years.