High temporal contrast, diode pumped, femtosecond laser providing 200fs, 1053nm pulses for seeding large scale Nd:glass laser systems

Gabor Kulcsar; Erdal Schranz; Daniel Kopf

doi:10.1117/12.2545724

21 February 2020 High temporal contrast, diode pumped, femtosecond laser providing 200fs, 1053nm pulses for seeding large scale Nd:glass laser systems

Gabor Kulcsar, Erdal Schranz, Daniel Kopf

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11259, Solid State Lasers XXIX: Technology and Devices; 112591K (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2545724
Event: SPIE LASE, 2020, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We report on a passively mode-locked, diode-pumped femtosecond laser that provides ~200fs, 1053nm optical solitonlike pulses with < 8 orders of magnitude (OM) temporal contrast. The average output power of the compact, air-cooled laser is ~450mW at 77MHz pulse repetition rate. The spectral bandwidth (FWHM) is around 5-6nm, corresponding to transform limited pulses. For synchronization purposes the pulse repetition rate can be fine tuned to and continuously kept at a desired value employing a controller circuit, a motorized translation stage and a piezo actuator. The center wavelength of the pulses is tunable and can be precisely set to 1053nm by adjusting the laser pump power. The selfstarting laser is mode-locked using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The SESAM parameters are optimized for producing fs pulses with high temporal contrast. The effects of an intra-cavity fused silica plate inserted near Brewster angle and used for fine wavelength tuning and for polarization selection on the temporal contrast of the emitted pulses are discussed. The high temporal contrast pulses from this laser oscillator are well suited for seeding very high gain, multiple Joule type, Nd:glass, chirped pulse amplification systems routinely used in high intensity laser interaction experiments. The automated high dynamic range autocorrelator (HDR-AC) capable of recording the autocorrelation trace over 8 OM is described. The HDR-AC is based on a BBO crystal for second harmonic generation and a PMT for high sensitivity detection. A lock-in amplifier increases the detectable signal range by ~2 OM.

Citation Download Citation

Gabor Kulcsar, Erdal Schranz, and Daniel Kopf "High temporal contrast, diode pumped, femtosecond laser providing 200fs, 1053nm pulses for seeding large scale Nd:glass laser systems", Proc. SPIE 11259, Solid State Lasers XXIX: Technology and Devices, 112591K (21 February 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2545724

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
8 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Mode locking

Femtosecond phenomena

Pulsed laser operation

Mirrors

Optical amplifiers

Signal detection

Laser systems engineering

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years