Suppression of amplified spontaneous emission in a femtosecond chirped-pulse amplifier

The suppression of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) that arises during the femtosecond chirped-pulse amplification is presented. On the basis of the distinct differences in the spatial, temporal and spectral region between ASE and the amplified laser signal, the noise arising from ASE was effectively filtered out. The ratio between the amplified femtosecond pulse and the ASE peak power was higher than 107. Pulses as short as 38 fs were amplified to peak power of 1.4 TW.