Short-pulse and high-repetition-rate diode-pumped Yb:CaF2 regenerative amplifier

Sandrine Ricaud (1) , Frédéric Druon (1) , Dimitris N. Papadopoulos (2, 1) , Patrice Camy (3) , Jean-Louis Doualan (3) , Richard Moncorgé (3) , Martin Delaigue (4) , Yoann Zaouter (4) , Antoine Courjaud (4) , Patrick Georges (1) , Eric Mottay (4)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa
2 ILE - Institut de la Lumiére Extrême
3 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
4 Amplitude Systèmes

We present a diode-pumped regenerative amplifier based on an Yb:CaF2 crystal optimized to produce short pulses for various repetition rates ranging from 100 Hz to 10 kHz. The shortest pulse duration generated is 178 fs, and the corresponding energy is 1:4 mJ before compression (620 μJ after), at a repetition rate of 500 Hz for 16 W of pump power. The bandwidth is 10 nm centered at 1040 nm. Higher repetition rate regimes have also been explored, allowing an optical-to-optical efficiency up to 10% at a high repetition rate.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Sandrine Ricaud, Frédéric Druon, Dimitris N. Papadopoulos, Patrice Camy, Jean-Louis Doualan, et al.. Short-pulse and high-repetition-rate diode-pumped Yb:CaF2 regenerative amplifier. Optics Letters, 2010, 35 (14), pp.2415-2417. ⟨10.1364/OL.35.002415⟩. ⟨hal-00533092⟩