Development of a Front-End System for Chirped Pulse Amplification High-Power Nd: Glass Laser

• Published in: Rēzā kenkyū Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 291 - 297
• Main Authors: YOSHIDA, Hidetsugu, KODAMA, Ryosuke, FUJITA, Hisanori, KATO, Yoshiaki, MIMA, Kunioki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Laser Society of Japan 1999
• Subjects: Chirped pulse amplification; High peak-power laser; Nd: fluorophosphate glass; Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror Ti: Al2O3
• ISSN: 0387-0200; 1349-6603
• DOI: 10.2184/lsj.27.291

We have developed a front-end system to generate a chirped pulse at a wavelength of 1053 nm for a 100 TW glass laser system. The front-end system consists of a passively mode-locked diode-pumped Nd: glass laser, a pulse stretcher and a Ti: Al2O3 regenerative amplifier. The passive mode-locked diode-pumped Nd: fluorophoshate glass laser produced pulses as short as 150 fs at an average power of 100 mW at 1053 nm-1061 nm at a repetition frequency of 99.98 MHz. The TEM00 Ti: Al2O3 regenerative amplifier exhibited a net gain of over 106 at 1053 nm. At long time operation, the output pulse energy is typically 4 mJ, with a power fluctuation of less than ±5% with temperature and humidity control in cavity. No significant gain narrowing was observed in the cavity, resulting in a 1.6 ns chirped pulse that was synchronized with the RF signal of GEKKO XII laser system within a few ps by controlling the oscillator cavity length with a PZT actuator.