Patricie Severová

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.

Lasing and thermal characteristics of Yb:YAG/YAG composite with atomic diffusion bonding

We demonstrated the laser performance of an Yb:YAG/YAG composite ceramic laser medium mounted on an aluminium heatsink via atomic diffusion bonding (ADB) technique using nanocrystalline metal films at room temperature in air. The surface temperature rise of the ADB bonded laser medium was linear with 57 °C lower than that of the commercially available soldered Yb:YAG thin disk at the pump power of 280 W. Moreover, the ADB disk was pumped 1.5 times higher (7.3 kW cm−2) than the typical damage threshold of the soldered disk without any sign of damage. The undoped capping may be effective for the suppression of ASE heating; however, according to the in situ OPD measurement it induces strong thermal lensing. The CW laser output power of 177 W was obtained at the pump power of 450 W with the optical-to-optical efficiency of 40% using V-shape cavity.

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.

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.

Tunable mid-IR parametric conversion system pumped by a high-average-power picosecond Yb:YAG thin-disk laser

The mid-IR wavelength range has gained increased interest due to its applications in gas sensing, medicine, defense, and others. Optical parametric devices play an important role in the generation of radiation in the mid-IR. Low thermal load of nonlinear crystals promises high average power outputs if powerful pump laser is available. We have developed 75-W average power pump laser operating at 100 kHz repetition rate. The pulses of Yb-fiber laser oscillator at 1030-nm wavelength are stretched by a chirped volume Bragg grating from 5 ps to 180 ps and inserted into a cavity of regenerative amplifier with an Yb:YAG thin-disk. The amplified pulses are compressed by a chirped volume Bragg grating with an 88% efficiency. We have proposed a wavelength conversion system generating picosecond pulses tunable between 2 and 3 μm. The seed signal radiation is acquired by the optical parametric generation in the first nonlinear crystal. Signal pulse energy is increased in the subsequent optical parametric amplifiers. Each amplification stage consists of a crystal pair in the walkoff compensating arrangement. The wavelength of the signal beam is tunable between 1.6 and 2.1 μm. The 2.1 - 3 μm tunable source will be the idler beam taken from the last amplification stage. Calculations show the output power of ten watt can be achieved for 100 W pump. The results of preliminary experiments with seeded optical parametric generation and subsequent amplification are presented and discussed.

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.

Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) - results and upgrades

The PALS multi-user laser facility has been offering the beam time to the groups of both domestic and foreign rsearchers since September 2000. During the past two years of operation of its terawatt iodine laser system, a number of technical innovations and new diagnostic options were implemented, the most important of which are described in the paper. A brief survey of the current PALS research program is also given. Laser plasma sources of x-radiation and of highly stripped ions represent the two main lines followed. Recent highlights include the development and application of a highly coherent double-pass XUV laser based on Ne-like zinc. The reported studies of material response to the XUV pulses are mainly motivated by a potential use of the observed ablation phenomena e.g. in nanotechnology, while the x-ray contact microscopy permitted to image living biological objects with a resolution comparable to that of the electron microscopy. The PALS laser system is now in a routine operation, which opens the way to its new upgrades. The progress reached with the key ones -- application of elements of adaptive optics, replacement the original iodine oscillator by a solid-state based one, and, most important, implementation of the optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) technique -- is also reported.

Modeling and optimization of thin disk structure for high power sub-joule laser

We analyzed the transient response characteristics of Yb:YAG thin disk in to clarify the experimentally obtained advantages of pulsed pumping in 1-kHz repetition rate reported in ref. 2. We applied commercial 2D FEA software which can calculate transient response of thermal effects. The temperature distributions of thin disk in both the CW power of 125-W and the average power of pulsed 125-W have been calculated. Even the net heat power were same in both CW and pulsed pumping, the temperature distribution was lower in pulsed pumping which can provide higher O-O efficiency and smaller beam distortion. The time evolution of OPD in the pulsed pumping has been analyzed, too.