Abstract

Because of its large stimulated emission cross-section, high saturation energy and wide gain bandwidth, Tksapphire is an important amplification medium for terawatt- level laser systems based on chirped pulse amplification (CPA). Additionally, superior thermal properties and well developed crystal growth technology of Tiisapphire make scalability to higher energy system possible without sacrificing repetitive operation. Since its short upper state lifetime (3 ps) makes flashlamp pumping difficult, most Tksapphire-based CPA laser systems use laser-pumped amplifiers. However, flashlamp-pumping of Tksapphire amplifiers has advantages over laser-pumping ones in terms of simplicity of configuration and scalability to high (>500 mj) output energy. Although 500-mJ output has been successfully demonstrated from a flash- lamp-pumped Tksapphire amplifier in a CPA laser system, a dye converter was used in the amplifier, increasing the complexity and required maintenance of the device.¹

© 1994 Optical Society of America