ASE suppression in a high energy Titanium sapphire amplifier
Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 11, pp. 8039-8049 (2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.16.008039
Enhanced HTML 
Acrobat PDF (298 KB)
Abstract
The energy required to generate ultrashort pulses with petawatt peak power from a Ti:sapphire laser system is a few tens of joules. To achieve this, the final amplifier must have a gain region of around 5 cm diameter that is uniformly pumped at high fluence. The high level of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in such an amplifier will seriously degrade its performance unless care is taken to minimise the transverse gain and the internal reflections from the crystal edges. In developing the amplifiers for the Astra Gemini laser system, we have combined the techniques of beam homogenisation and double-pass pumping of a lightly-doped crystal with a new index-matched absorber liquid. Our results demonstrate that this combined approach successfully overcomes the problem of gain depletion by ASE in a high-energyTi:sapphire amplifier.
© 2008 Optical Society of America
OCIS Codes
(140.3280) Lasers and laser optics : Laser amplifiers
(140.3590) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers, titanium
(140.5560) Lasers and laser optics : Pumping
(140.7090) Lasers and laser optics : Ultrafast lasers
ToC Category:
Lasers and Laser Optics
History
Original Manuscript: March 28, 2008
Revised Manuscript: May 2, 2008
Manuscript Accepted: May 14, 2008
Published: May 19, 2008
Citation
Klaus Ertel, Chris Hooker, Steve J. Hawkes, Bryn T. Parry, and John L. Collier, "ASE suppression in a high energy Titanium sapphire amplifier," Opt. Express 16, 8039-8049 (2008)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-16-11-8039
Sort: Year | Journal | Reset
References
- M. Aoyama, K. Yamakawa, Y. Akahane, J. Ma, N. Inoue, H. Ueda, and H. Kiriyama, "0.85-PW, 33-fs Ti : sapphire laser," Opt. Lett. 28, 1594-1596 (2003). [CrossRef]
- F. Plé, M. Pittman, G. Jamelot, and J. P. Chambaret, "Design and demonstration of a high-energy booster amplifier for a high-repetition rate petawatt class laser system," Opt. Lett. 32, 238-240 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- X. Liang, Y. Leng, C. Wang, C. Li, L. Lin, B. Zhao, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, M. Hu, C. Zhang, H. Lu, D. Yin, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, H. Wei, J. Zhu, R. Li, and Z. Xu, "Parasitic lasing suppression in high gain femtosecond petawatt Ti:sapphire amplifier," Opt. Express 15, 15335-15341 (2007), http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-15-23-15335. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- W. Koechner, Solid-State Laser Engineering (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1996).
- M. P. Kalachnikov, V. Karpov, H. Schonnagel, and W. Sandner, "100-terawatt titanium-sapphire laser system," Laser Physics 12, 368-374 (2002).
- C. Kopp, L. Ravel, and P. Meyrueis, "Efficient beamshaper homogenizer design combining diffractive optical elements, microlens array and random phase plate," J. Opt. A 1, 398-403 (1999). [CrossRef]
- S. A. Akhmanov, A. I. Kovrigin, M. M. Strukov, and R. V. Khokhlov, "Frequency dependence of threshold of optical breakdown in air," Jetp Letters-USSR 1, 25-29 (1965)
- J. A. Glaze, S. Guch, and J. B. Trenholme, "Parasitic suppression in large aperture Nd:glass disk laser amplifiers," Appl. Opt. 13, 2808- (1974) [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- F. G. Patterson, J. Bonlie, D. Price, and B. White, "Suppression of parasitic lasing in large-aperture Ti : sapphire laser amplifiers," Opt. Lett. 24, 963-965 (1999) [CrossRef]
- M. E. Graham, B. I. Davis, and D. V. Keller, "Immersion liquids for ruby lasers," Appl. Opt. 4, 613-615 (1965). [CrossRef]
- F. Plé, M. Pittman, F. Canova, and G. Jamelot, "Analysis and Solutions for Parasitic Lasing in Petawatt and Multi-Petawatt Ti:sapphire Laser Systems," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference and Photonic Applications Systems Technologies, Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2006), paper JWD4.
Cited By |
 Alert me when this paper is cited |
OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. CrossRef includes content from more than 3000 publishers and societies. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.
Related Journal Articles 
- Flexible aberration-free multipass amplifier and compressor for ultrashort-pulse amplification (JOSAB)
- Generation of a broad amplified spectrum in a femtosecond terawatt Ti:sapphire laser by a long-wavelength injection method (JOSAB)
- High-efficiency, single-stage 7-kHz high-average-power ultrafast laser system (OL)
- Sub-10-fs, terawatt-scale Ti:sapphire laser system (OL)
- A compact Ti:sapphire femtosecond pulse amplifier without stretcher at high repetition rate (COL)
Related Conference Papers
« Previous Article | Next Article »
OSA is a member of 