Amplification of ps-pulses from freely triggerable gain-switched laser diodes at 1062 nm and second harmonic generation in periodically poled lithium niobate

We present a compact frequency-doubled laser source with fundamental wavelength operation at 1062 nm. A freely triggerable seed diode laser delivers sub-100 ps pulses in the picojoule range at variable repetition rates up to 80 MHz. After amplification in a Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier, the average power exceeds 380mW at 40 MHz, which corresponds to 9.5 nJ pulses and about 75W of peak power. The output beam is then focussed into periodically poled lithium niobate for second harmonic generation (SHG). In this way, green picosecond pulses with an energy of up to 2 nJ at 40MHz are generated. The pulse energy and pulse shape of the second harmonic pulses are systematically studied for various repetition rates, allowing conclusions on the amplifier performance under different operating conditions.