Sub-20 ps high energy pulses from 1 kHz neodymium-based CPA

K. Michailovas; A. Zaukevičius; V. Petrauskienė; V. Smilgevičius; S. Balickas; A. Michailovas

doi:10.3952/physics.v58i2.3745

K. Michailovas
A. Zaukevičius
V. Petrauskienė
V. Smilgevičius
S. Balickas
A. Michailovas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3952/physics.v58i2.3745

Keywords: chirped pulse amplification (CPA), neodymium amplifiers, picosecond pulse amplifier, Nd, YAG, YVO4, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA)

Abstract

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique was realized in Nd:YVO₄ and Nd:YAG amplifiers. The front-end of the system consists of an Yb-doped fiber-optic master oscillator and a chirped fiber Bragg grating stretcher with a chain of Nd-based solid-state amplifiers followed by a grating compressor with custom high-dispersion multilayer dielectric gratings. This allowed us to implement a relatively compact and moderately complex master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) layout. 85 mJ of sub-20 ps pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate was obtained at the output. The amplifier features favourable parameters for OPCPA pumping.