Abstract

High power pico-second lasers have been intensely investigated in several fields, such as non-linear optics, laser ablation, and micro-fabrication. A side-pumped Nd:YVO₄ bounce amplifier, showing an extremely high single pass gain of over 1,000, can provide high-average-power outputs in the pico-second regime without a regenerative amplifier geometry. In particular, a phase conjugate master oscillator power amplifier (PC-MOPA) system formed by the bounce amplifier in combination with a photorefractive phase conjugate mirror, has successfully produced > 30 W high-power pico-second outputs with high beam quality [1-3].

© 2011 Optical Society of America