Abstract

High energy laser sources based on the Ho-ion which operate slightly above 2 μm at kilohertz repetition rates are of particular interest as pump sources for optical parametric amplifiers (OPA) to access the mid-IR spectral region at wavelengths longer than 4 µm [1]. For such pump laser systems the pulse duration aimed at is several 10 ps. Recently, millijoule level Ho:YAG [2] and Ho:YLF [3] regenerative amplifiers (RA) were demonstrated. The Ho:YAG system [2] operated at comparably low net amplification. The Ho:YLF RA [3] was a master oscillator/power amplifier setup using a narrowband seed. Here we report a broadband seeded Ho:YLF regenerative amplifier delivering a pulse energy of 2 mJ at 1 kHz which is implemented in a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system.

© 2015 IEEE