High average power 13 fs Ti:sapphire laser oscillator

Summary form only given. We describe a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser oscillator configuration which is capable of producing unprecedented pulse energies in the sub-15 fs duration region. The system is based on a 10 W Spectra-Physics Millennia pump laser and a 10 mm long Brewster-cut Ti:sapphire crystal. The laser is configured as a folded unidirectional ring oscillator and second and third-order group velocity dispersion compensation is provided by two pairs of intracavity fused silica prisms (apex angle 69/spl deg/) each with a separation distance of 590 mm. Results of the autocorrelation and spectrum of the output pulses from the laser are shown. The FWHM determined from the autocorrelation measurement by assuming a sech/sup 2/(t) intensity profile is 13 fs and the spectral bandwidth is 55 nm. This corresponds to a pulse duration-bandwidth product of 0.33, indicating that the pulses are very nearly transform-limited. The average output power for this measurement exceeded 1.4 W which corresponds to a pulse peak power of /spl sim/1 MW and a pulse energy of 13 nJ.