Abstract

Amplification of femtosecond pulses to the microjoule level at high (>1 kHz) repetition rates has generally been accomplished using dye amplifiers pulse-pumped by copper-vapor lasers or by frequency-doubled Nd:YAG regenerative amplifiers [1,2]. The repetition rate of these systems is generally limited by the repetition rate of available pulsed pump sources. In this work, I demonstrate that the superior energy storage of Ti:sapphire allows one to amplify femtosecond pulses to the microjoule level in a cw-pumped regenerative amplifier. The gain storage time of Ti:sapphire is about 3 (μs, which makes it possible to efficiently extract the energy stored by the pump at repetition rates up to 250 kHz. Q-switching, injection, and cavity-dumping of the amplifier are done acoustooptically in order to achieve the very high repetition rate [3].

© 1992 The Author(s)