Multi-terawatt femtosecond Cr:LiSAF laser

Author

Beaud, Paul A. ; Richardson, Martin ; Miesak, Edward J.

Author_Institution

Center for Res. in Electro-Opt. & Lasers, Central Florida Univ., Orlando, FL, USA

Volume

31

Issue

2

fYear

1995

fDate

2/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

317

Lastpage

325

Abstract

We discuss the design of a Cr:LiSAF laser system capable of generating ultrashort, 90-fs Fourier-transform limited pulses with a peak power of 8 TW. Using chirped pulse amplification and flashlamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF amplifiers this system incorporates a regenerative amplifier and three additional double-pass amplifiers with increasing aperture up to 25 mm. The temporal performance as well as the spatial beam quality are discussed in detail. We discuss extension of this system to the Petawatt power level

Keywords

chirp modulation; chromium; high-speed optical techniques; solid lasers; 25 mm; 8 TW; 90 fs; LiSrAlF₆:Cr; Petawatt power level; chirped pulse amplification; double-pass amplifiers; flashlamp-pumped amplifiers; multi-terawatt femtosecond Cr:LiSAF laser; regenerative amplifier; spatial beam quality; temporal performance; ultrashort Fourier-transform limited pulses; Laser theory; Optical amplifiers; Optical materials; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Power lasers; Pulse amplifiers; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.348061

Filename

348061