1.1 J Yb:YAG picosecond laser at 1 kHz repetition rate
Yong Wang, Han Chi, Cory Baumgarten, Kristian Dehne, Alexander R. Meadows, Aaron Davenport, Gabe Murray, Brendan A. Reagan, Carmen S. Menoni, J. J. Rocca
Abstract
We demonstrate the generation of 1.1 J pulses of picosecond duration at 1 kHz repetition rate (1.1 kW average power) from a diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser. The laser employs cryogenically cooled amplifiers to generate <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>λ</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>1030</mml:mn><mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/><mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">n</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math> pulses with average power of up to 1.26 kW prior to compression with excellent beam quality. Pulses are compressed to 4.5 ps duration with 90% efficiency. This compact picosecond laser will enable a variety of applications that require high energy ultrashort pulses at kilohertz repetition rates.