8.2 mJ, 324 MW, 5 kHz picosecond MOPA system based on Nd:YAG slab amplifiers

Abstract

We have demonstrated a high pulse energy, high peak power, and high beam quality picosecond (ps) master oscillator power amplifier system of 1064 nm at a pulse repetition rate of 5 kHz. This system consisted of a ps mode-locked oscillator, a regeneration amplifier, and three-stage Nd:YAG slab amplifiers, which enabled us to manage good thermal issues and provide an average power of 41 W. Up to 8.2 mJ of energy per pulse was achieved at the total absorbed pump power of 460 W with an average extraction efficiency of 8.5%. The pulse duration was 25.3 ps, which corresponds to a peak power of 324 MW. The beam quality factors of M2 were measured to be along the x axis direction and along the y axis direction, respectively, and the corresponding brightness was as high as 5.88 × 108 W cm−2 · Sr.

500-kHz Level High Energy Double-Pass Nd:YVO4 Picosecond Amplifier with Optic–Optic Efficiency of 51%

“…x = 1.28 along the x axis direction and M 2 y = 1.17 along the y axis direction, respectively. Compared with the results of existing amplifiers [11][12][13], the optic-optic efficiency of 51.07% is higher with good beam quality and high frequency. Our measurements show that this amplifier structure enables the laser to be fully amplified and operates stably.…”

“…x = 1.30, M 2 y = 1.28. In 2016, Ying Chen [12] had demonstrated a high pulse energy, high peak power, and high beam quality picosecond (ps) master oscillator power amplifier system of 1064 nm at a pulse repetition rate of 5 kHz. This system consisted of a ps mode-locked oscillator, a regeneration amplifier, and three-stage Nd:YAG slab amplifiers, which enabled us to manage good thermal issues and provide an average power of 41 W. Up to 8.2 mJ of energy per pulse was achieved at the total absorbed pump power of 460 W with an average extraction efficiency of 8.5%.…”

High-power high-repetition-rate Nd:YAG nanosecond slab laser amplifier

“…Up to now, the Nd:YAG slab crystal structure using Zigzag optical path has been proved to be a method to adjust the average output power and obtain higher optical-optical conversion efficiency [16][17][18] . Because the slab crystal can reduce the thermal gradient inside the crystal by increasing the heat dissipation area of the crystal, and let the laser propagate along the Zigzag path in the temperature gradient direction of the crystal, which can effectively reduce the thermal effect on the output laser [19][20][21][22][23] .…”

High pulse energy fiber/solid-slab hybrid picosecond pulse system for material processing on polycrystalline diamonds

“…However, for fiber-based amplifiers, because the small mode areas and long interaction lengths for light propagating in optical fiber will cause pulse distortions and pulse break-up, complex chirped pulse amplification (CPA) configuration must be set up in most cases [15][16][17][18][19] , which will increase the complexity of systems. Recently, the partially pumped slab laser systems have been widely studied, due to the ability of circumventing nonlinearity by the short reaction distance between the light and gain matter [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] . These slab laser systems have provided a novel approach to realize CPA-free amplification with high power ultrafast pulses.…”