Abstract

It is shown that mode matching, aberration compensation, control of beam overlap, and feedback are critical issues in designing multipass amplifiers for ultrashort pulse amplification. We have developed a Ti:sapphire amplifier system capable of producing aberration-free millijoule-level 25-fs pulses at 1 kHz. This system has a unique five-mirror ring design, which is capable of compensating second-order aberrations, and the flexibility to mode match the input beam and the pump laser. A unique compressor, which is a part of the amplification system, was designed to eliminate feedback.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

Thermal eigenmode amplifiers for diffraction-limited amplification of ultrashort pulses

François Salin, Catherine Le Blanc, Jeff Squier, and Chris Barty
Opt. Lett. 23(9) 718-720 (1998)

Fourth-order-dispersion limitations of aberration-free chirped-pulse amplification systems

S. Kane and J. Squier
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(5) 1237-1244 (1997)

Generation of 16-fs, 10-TW pulses at a 10-Hz repetition rate with efficient Ti:sapphire amplifiers

K. Yamakawa, M. Aoyama, S. Matsuoka, H. Takuma, C. P. J. Barty, and D. Fittinghoff
Opt. Lett. 23(7) 525-527 (1998)

Use of mismatched grating pairs in chirped-pulse amplification systems

Jeff Squier, Chris P. J. Barty, François Salin, Catherine Le Blanc, and Steve Kane
Appl. Opt. 37(9) 1638-1641 (1998)

Multipass non-collinear optical parametric amplifier for femtosecond pulses

Yuriy Stepanenko and Czesław Radzewicz
Opt. Express 14(2) 779-785 (2006)