160 W 800 fs Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier without CPA.

We demonstrate a compact and simple two-stage Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier which delivers 160 W average power, 800 fs pulses without chirped pulse amplification. This is the highest average power of femtosecond laser based on SCF. Additionally, we demonstrate the highest small signal gain of 32.5 dB from the SCF in the first stage and the highest extraction efficiency of 42% in the second stage. The excellent performance of the second stage was obtained using the bidirectional pumping scheme, which is applied to SCF for the first time.

[1]  Ferenc Krausz,et al.  High-repetition-rate picosecond pump laser based on a Yb:YAG disk amplifier for optical parametric amplification. , 2009, Optics letters.

[2]  C. Burrus,et al.  Nd : Y2O3 single‐crystal fiber laser: Room‐temperature cw operation at 1.07‐ and 1.35‐μm wavelength , 1978 .

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

[4]  Michel J. F. Digonnet,et al.  1.064- and 1.32-µm Nd:YAG single crystal fiber lasers , 1986 .

[5]  A. Okishev.  Highly efficient room-temperature Yb:YAG ceramic laser and regenerative amplifier. , 2012, Optics letters.

[6]  Patrick Georges,et al.  250 W single-crystal fiber Yb:YAG laser. , 2012, Optics letters.

[7]  Beat Neuenschwander,et al.  Processing of metals and dielectric materials with ps-laserpulses: results, strategies, limitations and needs , 2010, LASE.

[8]  J. Rothhardt,et al.  Coherent beam combination of Yb:YAG single-crystal rod amplifiers. , 2014, Optics letters.

[9]  Yoann Zaouter,et al.  Yb:YAG single crystal fiber power amplifier for femtosecond sources. , 2013, Optics letters.

[10]  R. Feigelson.  Opportunities for research on single-crystal fibers , 1988 .

[11]  O. Tillement,et al.  High power laser operation with crystal fibers , 2009 .

[12]  Cesar Jauregui,et al.  High-power fibre lasers , 2013 .

[13]  M. Gedvilas,et al.  Use of High Repetition Rate and High Power Lasers in Microfabrication: How to Keep the Efficiency High? , 2009 .

[14]  Yoann Zaouter,et al.  Direct amplification of ultrashort pulses in μ-pulling down Yb:YAG single crystal fibers , 2011, CLEO: 2011 - Laser Science to Photonic Applications.

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

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