Hannover 2016 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 21: Cold Molecules & Helium Droplets 2
MO 21.3: Talk
Friday, March 4, 2016, 11:45–12:00, f142
Toward multi-MW continuous-wave intracavity power lasers for the alignment of molecules — •Bastian Deppe1,2,3,4, Günter Huber1,2,3, Christian Kränkel1,3, and Jochen Küpper2,3,4 — 1Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg — 2Department of Physics, University of Hamburg — 3Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, University of Hamburg — 4Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Hamburg
We are setting up a CW thin disk laser with high finesse to align molecules for pump-probe experiments at X-ray light sources with arbitrary repetition rates. A resonator internal focus of ω0=25 µm will provide intensities in excess of 10 GW/cm2, sufficient for the continuous adiabatic alignment of molecules. Recently we demonstrated more than 130 kW of intracavity power at only 60 W of pump power with a pump spot diameter of 1.2 mm using Yb:YAG as the gain medium [1]. This result gives rise to a further scaling of the intracavity power by nearly two orders of magnitude into the multi-MW-range by pumping with the same intensity onto a pump spot diameter in the cm-scale utilized in state-of-the-art commercial thin disk lasers. In our presentation we will discuss the progress of our research in this respect and discuss different resonator configurations, different ytterbium-doped gain materials, the effects of additional required intracavity optics and polarization elements, as well as the challenges connected to in-vacuum operation of the laser.
[1] Deppe, Huber, Kränkel, Küpper, Opt. Exp. 23, 28491 (2015)