We report the demonstration of a diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser that produces λ=1.03  μm pulses of up to 1.5 J energy compressible to sub-5 ps duration at a repetition rate of 500 Hz (750 W average power). Amplification to high energy takes place in cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG active mirrors designed for kilowatt average power laser operation. This compact laser system will enable new advances in high-average-power ultrashort-pulse lasers and high-repetition-rate tabletop soft x-ray lasers. As a first application, the laser was used to pump a 400 Hz λ=18.9  nm laser.

Efficient excitation of dense plasma columns at 100-Hz repetition rate using a tailored pump pulse profile produced a tabletop soft-x-ray laser average power of 0.1 mW at λ = 13.9 nm and 20 μW at λ = 11.9 nm from transitions of Ni-like Ag and Ni-like Sn, respectively. Lasing on several other transitions with wavelengths between 10.9 and 14.7 nm was also obtained using 0.9-J pump pulses of 5-ps duration from a compact diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser. Hydrodynamic and atomic plasma simulations show that the pump pulse profile, consisting of a nanosecond ramp followed by two peaks of picosecond duration, creates a plasma with an increased density of Ni-like ions at the time of peak temperature that results in a larger gain coefficient over a temporally and spatially enlarged space leading to a threefold increase in the soft-x-ray laser output pulse energy. The high average power of these compact soft-x-ray lasers will enable applications requiring high photon flux. These results open the path to milliwatt-average-power tabletop soft-x-ray lasers.

We demonstrate the generation of 1.1 J pulses of picosecond duration at 1 kHz repetition rate (1.1 kW average power) from a diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser. The laser employs cryogenically cooled amplifiers to generate λ = 1030 n m pulses with average power of up to 1.26 kW prior to compression with excellent beam quality. Pulses are compressed to 4.5 ps duration with 90% efficiency. This compact picosecond laser will enable a variety of applications that require high energy ultrashort pulses at kilohertz repetition rates.

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Recent results in the development of diode-driven high energy, high repetition rate, picosecond lasers, including the demonstration of a cryogenic Yb:YAG active mirror amplifier that produces 1.5 J pulses at 500 Hz repetition rate (0.75 kW average power) are reviewed. These pulses are compressed resulting in the generation of ${\sim}5~\text{ps}$ duration, 1 J pulses with 0.5 kW average power. A full characterization of this high power cryogenic amplifier, including at-wavelength interferometry of the active region under ${>}1~\text{kW}$ average power pump conditions, is presented. An initial demonstration of operation at 1 kW average power (1 J, 1 kHz) is reported.