Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 41: Advanced Concepts for High Peak Power Ultrafast Lasers II

A 41.2: Invited Talk

Friday, March 4, 2016, 14:30–15:00, e415

Cryogenic multipass amplifiers for high peak and average power ultrafast lasers — •Luis E. Zapata — Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany

Ultrafast laser sources are in demand for many scientific and industrial applications. For example, few-mJ pulses are useful for driving the OPCPAs in pump-probe experiments and, Joule class pulses are necessary for the generation of x-rays through inverse Compton scattering. Ultimately, high average power determines the usefulness of a given laser system by shortening the time necessary for the collection of data or, the throughput when a process yield is derived. The success of the laser system also markedly depends on its size, weight and reliability, which are strongly tied to its complexity. Liquid nitrogen cooled DPSSLs based on Yb3+ offer a clear advantage with regards to all the above points. Engineering leverage is gained by an intrinsic several-fold improvements in thermo-optic and thermo-mechanical properties as well as ~decade higher gain-coefficients, which enables simple, passively switched multipass geometries to be implemented. Our progress in scaling chirped-pulse amplifiers has produced 250-Watt at 100-kHz and 160-mJ at 250-Hz based on liquid nitrogen cooled Yb:YAG in rod and composite-disk geometries operating at high gain. Clear scaling towards 1-kW average power at 100 kHz in cryogenic rods and, one-Joule pulse energy in cryogenic composite disks has emerged. We propose an advanced monolithic array of gain-cells for scaling to multi-Joule energies and multi-kW average powers.