Abstract

We have successfully used a Nd:phosphate glass regenerative amplifier to amplify picosecond pulses and to broaden the spectrum of thesed pulses by self-phase modulation. The spectrally-broadened pulses were then compressed from 12 ps to 1.8 ps with a grating. The energy of the compressed pulse was 3 µJ, and the pulse repetition rate was 370 Hz. No optical fiber was used in the experiment; fibers have limited power handling capability, which our system successfully overcame. Our system, generating high energy pulses at a medium repetition rate, fills the gap between the two other alternatives of pulse compression using Nd lasers: (1) low energy (30 nJ) and high repetition rate (100 MHz) [1,2]; and (2) high energy (2 mJ) and low repetition rate (few Hz) [3,4].

© 1988 Optical Society of America