1 MHz repetition rate hollow fiber pulse compression to sub-100-fs duration at 100 W average power.

We report on nonlinear pulse compression at very high average power. A high-power fiber chirped pulse amplification system based on a novel large pitch photonic crystal fiber delivers 700 fs pulses with 200 μJ pulse energy at a 1 MHz repetition rate, resulting in 200 W of average power. Subsequent spectral broadening in a xenon-filled hollow-core fiber and pulse compression with chirped mirrors is employed for pulse shortening and peak power enhancement. For the first time, to our knowledge, more than 100 W of average power are transmitted through a noble-gas-filled hollow fiber. After pulse compression of 81 fs, 93 μJ pulses are obtained at a 1 MHz repetition rate.

[1]  Jens Limpert,et al.  Optimization of high performance ultrafast fiber laser systems to >10 GW peak power , 2010 .

[2]  E. Marcatili,et al.  Hollow metallic and dielectric waveguides for long distance optical transmission and lasers , 1964 .

[3]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  High average power large-pitch fiber amplifier with robust single-mode operation. , 2011, Optics letters.

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

[5]  A Tünnermann,et al.  Multi-gigawatt ultrashort pulses at high repetition rate and average power from two-stage nonlinear compression. , 2011, Optics express.

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

[7]  Tino Eidam,et al.  High energy ultrashort pulses via hollow fiber compression of a fiber chirped pulse amplification system. , 2009, Optics express.

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

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

[10]  K. Midorikawa,et al.  Generation of 5.0 fs, 5.0 mJ pulses at 1kHz using hollow-fiber pulse compression. , 2010, Optics letters.

[11]  S. Hädrich,et al.  Lensless diffractive imaging using tabletop coherent high-harmonic soft-X-ray beams. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[12]  Matthias Golling,et al.  Femtosecond thin-disk laser with 141 W of average power. , 2010, Optics letters.

[13]  Jens Limpert,et al.  High-repetition-rate sub-5-fs pulses with 12 GW peak power from fiber-amplifier-pumped optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification. , 2011, Optics letters.

[14]  J. Rothhardt,et al.  Millijoule pulse energy high repetition rate femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system. , 2007, Optics letters.

[15]  J. Rothhardt,et al.  500 MW peak power degenerated optical parametric amplifier delivering 52 fs pulses at 97 kHz repetition rate. , 2008, Optics express.

[16]  M. Nisoli,et al.  Optimal spectral broadening in hollow-fiber compressor systems , 2005 .

[17]  O. Svelto,et al.  Generation of high-energy 10-fs pulses by a new pulse compression technique , 1996, Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

[18]  J. Feldhaus,et al.  Yb:YAG Innoslab amplifier: efficient high repetition rate subpicosecond pumping system for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification. , 2011, Optics letters.