530 W, 1.3 mJ, four-channel coherently combined femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system.

We report on a femtosecond fiber laser system comprising four coherently combined large-pitch fibers as the main amplifier. With this system, a pulse energy of 1.3 mJ and a peak power of 1.8 GW are achieved at 400 kHz repetition rate. The corresponding average output power is as high as 530 W. Additionally, an excellent beam quality and efficiency of the combination have been obtained. To the best of our knowledge, such a parameter combination, i.e., gigawatt pulses with half a kilowatt average power, has not been demonstrated so far with any other laser architecture.

[1]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  Yb-doped large-pitch fibres: effective single-mode operation based on higher-order mode delocalisation , 2012, Light: Science & Applications.

[2]  Tino Eidam,et al.  Femtosecond fiber CPA system emitting 830 W average output power. , 2010, Optics letters.

[3]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  Fiber chirped-pulse amplification system emitting 3.8 GW peak power. , 2011, Optics express.

[4]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Basic considerations on coherent combining of ultrashort laser pulses. , 2011, Optics express.

[5]  Arlee V. Smith,et al.  Mode instability in high power fiber amplifiers. , 2011, Optics express.

[6]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Coherent addition of fiber-amplified ultrashort laser pulses. , 2010, Optics express.

[7]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  Physical origin of mode instabilities in high-power fiber laser systems. , 2012, Optics express.

[8]  U. Keller From femtosecond to attosecond optics , 2010, 2009 IEEE LEOS Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings.

[9]  J. Rothhardt,et al.  Generation of µW level plateau harmonics at high repetition rate. , 2011, Optics express.

[10]  T. Hänsch,et al.  Laser frequency stabilization by polarization spectroscopy of a reflecting reference cavity , 1980 .

[11]  Almantas Galvanauskas,et al.  Coherent femtosecond pulse combining of multiple parallel chirped pulse fiber amplifiers. , 2012, Optics express.

[12]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Coherently-combined two channel femtosecond fiber CPA system producing 3 mJ pulse energy. , 2011, Optics express.

[13]  Joshua E. Rothenberg,et al.  Perturbative analysis of coherent combining efficiency with mismatched lasers. , 2010, Optics express.

[14]  Tino Eidam,et al.  Circular versus linear polarization in laser-amplifiers with Kerr-nonlinearity. , 2009, Optics express.

[15]  Andrew Bratcher,et al.  Coherent Polarization Beam Combination , 2010, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[16]  Marko Laurila,et al.  Single-Mode ytterbium-doped Large-Mode-Area photonic bandgap rod fiber amplifier. , 2011, Optics express.

[17]  Jens Limpert,et al.  88 W 0.5 mJ femtosecond laser pulses from two coherently combined fiber amplifiers. , 2011, Optics letters.

[18]  Marcos Dantus,et al.  Multiphoton intrapulse interference. IV. Ultrashort laser pulse spectral phase characterization and compensation. , 2004, Optics letters.

[19]  H. Hoffmann,et al.  Compact diode-pumped 1.1 kW Yb:YAG Innoslab femtosecond amplifier. , 2010, Optics letters.

[20]  Almantas Galvanauskas,et al.  Chirally-coupled-core Yb-fiber laser delivering 80-fs pulses with diffraction-limited beam quality warranted by a high-dispersion mirror based compressor. , 2010, Optics express.

[21]  Matthias Golling,et al.  275 W average output power from a femtosecond thin disk oscillator operated in a vacuum environment. , 2012, Optics express.

[22]  T. Eidam,et al.  Experimental observations of the threshold-like onset of mode instabilities in high power fiber amplifiers. , 2011, Optics express.

[23]  D. V. Murphy,et al.  Coherent combining of a 4 kW, eight-element fiber amplifier array. , 2011, Optics letters.

[24]  L. Zenteno,et al.  High-power double-clad fiber lasers , 1993 .

[25]  B. Ward,et al.  Origin of thermal modal instabilities in large mode area fiber amplifiers. , 2012, Optics express.

[26]  Gerard Mourou,et al.  Compression of amplified chirped optical pulses , 1985 .

[27]  P Bourdon,et al.  Passive coherent beam combining of two femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers , 2011, Other Conferences.