2.05 µm chirped pulse amplification system at a 1 kHz repetition rate—2.4 ps pulses with 17 GW peak power
Lorenz von Grafenstein, Martin Böck, Dennıs Ueberschaer, Azıze Koç, Uwe Griebner, Thomas Elsaesser
Abstract
Ho-doped yttrium lithium fluoride chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is implemented with a high-gain regenerative amplifier (RA) and a two-stage booster amplifier. We demonstrate the generation of 52.5 mJ pulses with a duration of 2.4 ps at a 1 kHz repetition rate. A peak power of 17 GW is achieved for the 2050 nm pulses. The CPA displays a remarkably high stability with a pulse-to-pulse rms as low as 0.23%. The RA operates without any signs of bifurcation and delivers 12 mJ pulses. Seeding the booster amplifier with the RA output scales the pulse energy linearly up into the 50-60 mJ range. The amplifier system is operated at room temperature and shows a high optical-to-optical efficiency of 20.3% with respect to the optical pump power.