Publications

Spectrally tunable high-power Yb:fiber chirped-pulse amplifier

Author(s)
Valentina Shumakova, Vito F. Pecile, Jakob Fellinger, Michael Leskowschek, P. E. Collin Aldia, Aline S. Mayer, Lukas W. Perner, Sarper Salman, Mingqi Fan, Prannay Balla, Stéphane Schilt, Christoph M. Heyl, Ingmar Hartl, Gil Porat, Oliver H. Heckl
Abstract

Tailoring the properties of the driving laser to the need of applications often requires compromises among laser stability, high peak and average power levels, pulse duration, and spectral bandwidth. For instance, spectroscopy with optical frequency combs in the extreme/visible ultraviolet spectral region requires a high peak power of the near-IR driving laser, and therefore high average power, pulse duration of a few tens of fs, and maximal available spectral bandwidth. Contrarily, the parametric conversion efficiency is higher for pulses with a duration in the 100-fs range due to temporal walk-off and coating limitations. Here we suggest an approach to adjust the spectral characteristics of high-power chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) to the requirements of different nonlinear frequency converters while preserving the low-phase-noise (PN) properties of the system. To achieve spectral tunability, we installed a mechanical spectral shaper in a free-space section of the stretcher of an in-house-developed ytterbium-fiber-based CPA system. The CPA system delivers 100 W of average power at a repetition rate of 132.4 MHz. While gaining control over the spectral properties, we preserve the relative-intensity-noise and PN properties of the system. The high-power CPA can easily be adjusted to deliver either a spectrum ideal for mid-IR light generation (full width at half maximum of ∼11 nm, compressed pulse duration of 230 fs) or a spectrum ideal for highly nonlinear processes such as high-harmonic generation (−10 dB level of >50 nm, transform-limited pulse duration of ∼65 fs).

Organisation(s)
Faculty Center for Nano Structure Research
External organisation(s)
Technische Universität Wien, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Université de Neuchâtel, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Helmholtz-Institute Jena, University of Alberta
Journal
Photonics Research
Volume
10
Pages
2309-2316
No. of pages
8
ISSN
2327-9125
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1364/PRJ.465883
Publication date
10-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103016 Laser physics, 103021 Optics, 103040 Photonics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/spectrally-tunable-highpower-ybfiber-chirpedpulse-amplifier(07122846-0e4b-4c5b-94e4-a02ea6dcf3b5).html