Abstract

Recently, there has been interest in the generation of high energy, short temporal pulses which are wavelength tunable. In this paper, we will report the amplification of pulses from a gain-switched laser diode with a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier. The diode pulses are ~100 picoseconds long and centered at 750 nm with ~2 x 10^-12 Joules per pulse. The output energy in a single pulse from the regenerative amplifier was as high as 2 × 10⁻³ Joules, for an amplification of 10⁹. The pump laser used in this experiment was a 5 nanosecond pulse from a doubled Nd:YAG laser which was focused to a 1 mm spot on the crystal. The measured extraction efficiency was ~22%. This is close to that expected for 750 nm output due to the large Fresnel losses of an uncoated Ti:sapphire crystal.

© 1988 Optical Society of America