Broadband low-coherence light is considered to be an effective way to suppress laser plasma instability. Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of low-coherence laser facilities to reduce back-scattering during beam–target coupling. However, to ensure simultaneous low coherence and high energy, complex spectral modulation methods and amplification routes have to be adopted. In this work, we propose the use of a random fiber laser (RFL) as the seed source. The spectral features of this RFL can be carefully tailored to provide a good match with the gain characteristics of the laser amplification medium, thus enabling efficient amplification while maintaining low coherence. First, a theoretical model is constructed to give a comprehensive description of the output characteristics of the spectrum-tailored RFL, after which the designed RFL is experimentally realized as a seed source. Through precise pulse shaping and efficient regenerative amplification, a shaped random laser pulse output of 28 mJ is obtained, which is the first random laser system with megawatt-class peak power that is able to achieve low coherence and efficient spectrum-conformal regenerative amplification.

A novel approach based on Cr4+:YAG interlayers to break the transmission paths of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in a cryogenic gas cooled Yb:YAG multislab amplifier geometry was presented for the suppression of ASE in the power scaling of high energy, high average power laser systems. The benefits of Cr4+:YAG interlayers for the overall performance of an amplifier were illustrated with respect to energy storage capacity, heat generation and amplification of the seed pulses based on the theory of quasi-three-level Yb3+ ions and Cr4+:YAG saturable absorption, the Monte Carlo and ray-tracing methods. For the amplifier with optimized Cr4+:YAG interlayers, it was found that the energy storage efficiency was increased from 39.12% to 47.38% in comparison with the amplifier without interlayers. The maximum output energy of 1119.53 J with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 28.91% in the amplifier with interlayers was obtained, while it reduced to 810.61 J with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 20.94% in the amplifier without interlayers. To our knowledge, this is the first quantitative characterization of the performance of a cryogenic gas cooled Yb:YAG multislab amplifier with Cr4+:YAG interlayers.

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