Michal Chyla

Suppression of nonlinear phonon relaxation in Yb:YAG thin disk via zero phonon line pumping

A quantitative comparison of conventional absorption line (940 nm) pumping and zero phonon line (ZPL) (969 nm) pumping of a Yb:YAG thin disk laser is reported. Characteristics of an output beam profile, surface temperature, and deformation of a thin disk under the different pump wavelengths are evaluated. We found that a nonlinear phonon relaxation (NPR) of the excited state in Yb:YAG, which induces nonlinear temperature rise and large aspheric deformation, did not appear in the case of a ZPL pumped Yb:YAG thin disk. This means that the advantage of ZPL pumping is not only the reduction of quantum defect but also the suppression of NPR. The latter effect is more important for high power lasers.

High-power, picosecond pulse thin-disk lasers in the Hilase project

Development of high-power, picosecond laser sources is a desirable venture for both industry and research. Within the Hilase project, we are conducting research on both 500-mJ, 1-kHz and 5-mJ, 100-kHz picosecond laser sources based on the Yb:YAG thin-disk technology. We have developed a prototype thin-disk regenerative amplifier operating up to 10- kHz repetition rate pumped by the 940-nm fiber-coupled laser diodes. We achieved 5-mJ pulse energy at 10-kHz operation and 29.5-mJ at 1-kHz. Afterwards, we developed the high-energy regenerative amplifier operating at fixed repetition rate of 1-kHz and the pulse energy was achieved up to 40-mJ. Simultaneously, we elaborated the highrepetition rate regenerative amplifier operating at 100-kHz with pulse energy of 220-μJ. The amplified pulse was compressed with the efficiency of 88% using chirped volume Bragg grating.

High-energy, picosecond regenerative thin-disk amplifier at 1 kHz

We present recent progress in development of a compact regenerative laser amplifier based on the Yb:YAG thin-disk technology delivering up to 100 mJ picosecond pulses with a repetition rate of 1 kHz, designed for seeding a kW-class multipass amplifier for industrial and scientific applications. System utilizes two laser heads pumped at zero-phonon line (968.825 nm1) by stabilized high-power pump diodes operated in pulsed regime. The concept is based on the CPA technique where seed pulses produced by fiber oscillator at 1030 nm are stretched and compressed by use of transmission gratings.

Amplification of picosecond pulses to 100 W by an Yb:YAG thin-disk with CVBG compressor

High average power picosecond lasers have become an import tool in many fields of science and industry. We report on progress in development of 100 kHz, 100 W picosecond Yb:YAG thin disk laser amplifier with fundamental spatial mode at the HiLASE laser center. More efficient direct pumping to an upper laser level has been employed in order to suppress thermal loading of the thin disk active medium and to increase system stability. We also carefully analyzed and described all benefits of this so called zero phonon line pumping (ZPL) for fundamental spatial mode cavity design and successfully increased extraction efficiency of the amplifier to > 28 %. A novel approach of high-power picosecond pulse compression using a space saving and easy-to-align chirped-volume Bragg grating (CVBG) with high dispersion and high net efficiency approaching 88 % allowed us to build a robust and highly compact pulse compressor. A 100 kHz train of sub-1-milijoule pulses compressed bellow 2 ps (FWHM) in almost diffraction limited Gaussian beam has been successfully generated from this highly compact (900 x 1200 mm) thin-disk-based Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier.

Time-resolved deformation measurement of Yb:YAG thin disk using wavefront sensor

Even though thin-disk medium mounted on a diamond substrate is generally used for high average power operation, we found that the pulsed pumping of the Yb:YAG thin-disk mounded on a copper-tungsten heatsink could improve both optical-to-optical O-O efficiency and beam quality. We are expecting that the increase of O-O efficiency is caused by the suppression of ASE. However, the mechanism of beam quality improvement is not clear. We developed a precise measurement system of thin-disk deformations based on a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. Investigating thin-disk dynamics under pulsed pumping can help to greatly improve the mode matching and allow obtaining higher output energy.

Progress in kW-class picosecond thin-disk lasers development at the HiLASE

High average power picosecond Yb:YAG thin-disk lasers are being developed at Hilase. A compact 1 mJ/100 kHz and 4 mJ/100 kHz zero-phonon-line-pumped regenerative amplifiers PERLA C with a CVBG compressor provide <2 ps long pulses in a nearly diffraction-limited beam. The output was successfully converted to 2nd and 4th harmonic frequency with high conversion efficiency. High energy, QCW-pumped beamline PERLA B is operated at 45mJ/1kHz in fundamental spatial mode and pulse length < 2ps. Its second stage amplifier is being assembled and 1.8 J was extracted. The latest development status of all thin-disk beamlines at the Hilase center is reported.

Precise curvature measurement of Yb:YAG thin disk

We are developing an Yb:YAG thin disk regenerative amplifier operating at 1 kHz repetition rate which should deliver output of 100 W of average power which corresponds to the pulse energy of 100 mJ. In order to achieve such high output energy, large size mode matching on a thin-disk is required to avoid optical damage but on the other hand, larger mode area is more susceptible to the influence of optical phase distortions (OPD’s) thus limits achievable pulse energy and beam quality. We developed a compact setup allowing precise measurement of the thin-disk deformations by implementation of a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor and a single mode probe laser diode. In comparison to the interferometric measurement methods, our approach brings a number of advantages like simplicity of alignment, compactness and robustness, at the same time keeping the high precision of measurement in a range of few nanometers.

High energy picosecond light source based on cryogenically conduction cooled Yb-doped laser amplifier

We are developing one joule energy and one picosecond pulse duration laser system at the repetition rate of 120 Hz based on Yb-doped solid-state materials. The amplified output from the thin disk regenerative amplifier is amplified by a cryogenically conduction cooled single slab amplifier. In this work, we also present a new measurement method of a gain distribution insensitive to mode matching. One of the advantages of this method is a fact that it provides real dimensions of the gain distribution. Knowledge about it allows one to find the optimum spatial mode matching to maximize the output energy.

50-mJ, 1-kHz Yb:YAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier with 969-nm pulsed pumping

We are developing a 100-mJ Yb:YAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier operating at 1-kHz repetition rate pumped at zero-phonon-line (968.825-nm1) and delivering 1-2 ps pulses for EUV plasma sources applicable in science and industry. Recently we achieved the output energy of nearly 50-mJ from a single laser-head cavity with good beam quality (M2<1.2) as well as stable beam-pointing (<4μrad). Applying pulsed pumping with the pulse duration shorter than the upper state lifetime of Yb:YAG helps to reduce the ASE and thermal loading of the thin-disk.

In-situ optical phase distortion measurement of Yb:YAG thin disk in high average power regenerative amplifier

We are developing one kilohertz picosecond Yb:YAG thin disk regenerative amplifier with 500-W average power for medical and industrial applications. In case of high energy pulse amplification, a large area mode matching in gain media, which is drastically degenerated by the optical phase distortion, is required to avoid optical damage. We designed in-situ thin disk deformation measurement based on the combination of a precise wavefront sensor and a single mode probe beam. In contrast to a conventional interferometric measurement, this measurement is compact, easy-to-align, and is less affected by mechanical vibrations.