高能量、kHz 重复率、皮秒低温 Yb:YAG 啁啾脉冲放大器。

High-energy, kHz-repetition-rate, ps cryogenic Yb:YAG chirped-pulse amplifier.

机构信息

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics,Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

出版信息

Opt Lett. 2010 Jun 1;35(11):1752-4. doi: 10.1364/OL.35.001752.

DOI:10.1364/OL.35.001752

PMID:20517404

Abstract

We demonstrate amplification of picosecond laser pulses to 40?mJ at a 2?kHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) from a two-stage cryogenic chirped-pulse Yb:YAG amplifier, composed of a regenerative amplifier (RGA) and a two-pass booster amplifier. The RGA produces 8.2mJ of energy at 2kHz PRF and 13.2mJ at 1kHz PRF with excellent energy stability (approximately 0.3% rms) and beam quality (M(2)<1.1). Pulse stretching and compression are achieved by using a chirped fiber Bragg grating and a multilayer dielectric grating pair, respectively. Compressed 15?ps pulses from the RGA are obtained with a throughput efficiency of approximately 80% (approximately 6.5 mJ for 2kHz). The booster amplifier further amplifies the pulses to 40mJ at 2kHz PRF, and approximately 32 mJ, approximately 15 ps pulses are expected after compression. The amplifier chain seeded from a femtosecond Yb-fiber laser enables the optical self-synchronization between signal and pump in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier applications.

摘要

我们展示了一种两级低温啁啾脉冲 Yb:YAG 放大器，包括再生放大器 (RGA) 和两级 booster 放大器，将皮秒激光脉冲在 2kHz 脉冲重复频率 (PRF) 下放大到 40?mJ，脉冲重复频率为 2kHz 时，RGA 可产生 8.2mJ 的能量，脉冲重复频率为 1kHz 时，RGA 可产生 13.2mJ 的能量，同时具有出色的能量稳定性 (约 0.3% rms) 和光束质量 (M(2)<1.1)。通过使用啁啾光纤布拉格光栅和多层介质光栅对，实现了脉冲拉伸和压缩。RGA 输出的压缩 15ps 脉冲的透过率效率约为 80%（2kHz 时约为 6.5mJ）。 booster 放大器将脉冲进一步放大到 2kHz PRF 下的 40mJ，经过压缩后，预计将获得约 32mJ、约 15ps 的脉冲。该放大器链由飞秒 Yb 光纤激光器种子源，可实现光参量啁啾脉冲放大应用中的信号光和泵浦光的光学自同步。