Ultrafast thin-disk lasers are based on the mature thin-disk technology. This technique allows for highest pump powers due to very efficient cooling. Therefore, the thin-disk geometry offers exceptional scaling of laser performance in terms of average power. Over the last decade industrial lasers for cutting and welding applications were continuously improved. More than 12kW can be obtained by a single thin-disk in continuous wave mode. TRUMPF Scientific Lasers uses the same thin-disk components to develop and manufacture ultrafast amplifiers. The achieved output power is close to 2kW with record pulse energies >95 mJ.
Thomas Metzger, Christian Grebing, Clemens Herkommer, Sandro Klingebiel, Peter Krötz, Stephan Prinz, Sebastian Stark, Catherine Teisset, Christoph Wandt, Knut Michel
TRUMPF Scientific Lasers develops and provides customized ultrafast amplifiers based on thin-disk technology. Due to its efficient one-dimensional heat removal and the small longitudinal extension of the gain medium, the thin-disk geometry offers exceptional scaling performance both in terms of energy and average power. All systems are based on the industrialized TRUMPF thin-disk laser technology [1]. Regenerative amplifiers systems with multi-millijoule pulses, kilohertz repetition rates and picosecond pulse durations are currently available. Record pulse energies of 220 mJ at 1 kHz could be demonstrated originally developed for pumping optical parametric amplifiers [2-4]. In this contribution, we present different commercial ultrafast solutions based on regenerative amplifiers with up to 200 mJ of pulse energies and more than 1 kW of average power [3-5]. New developments with thin-disk based multipass amplifier cells led to multikilowatt average output powers [6-9]. First measures to scale the energy with multipass thin-disk amplifiers towards 1 J will be presented. In addition, concepts for nonlinear compression to reach pulse durations below 50 fs will be discussed.
Knut Michel, Christian Grebing, Clemens Herkommer, Sandro Klingebiel, Peter Krötz, Stephan Prinz, Marcel Schultze, Sebastian Stark, Catherine Teisset, Christoph Wandt, Thomas Metzger
TRUMPF Scientific Lasers provides ultrafast laser sources for the scientific community with high pulse energies and high average power. All systems are based on the industrialized TRUMPF thin-disk technology. Regenerative amplifiers systems with multi-millijoule pulses, kilohertz repetition rates and picosecond pulse durations are available. Record values of 220mJ at 1kHz could be demonstrated originally developed for pumping optical parametric amplifiers. A huge step will be to combine high energies, 1J per pulse, with average powers of several hundred watts to a kilowatt. Multipass amplifiers based on the thin-disk technology were successfully used to realize picosecond amplifiers with more than 2kW of average power. Nevertheless, the pulse energy was in the μJ or low mJ range. At TRUMPF Scientific Lasers these experiences will lead the way to set-up a system running at 1kHz repetition rate and a target pulse energy of 1J. Within the paper the roadmap to a Joule system will be presented as well as first results from a laboratory set-up.
Kerr-lens mode locked lasers based on polycrystalline Cr:ZnS and Cr:ZnSe have come of age and, arguably, represent the most viable route for generation of ultra-short pulses in the range 2–3 μm. Developed designs of Kerr-lens mode locked oscillators feature high efficiency and provide access to few-cycle MIR pulses with Watt-level power in a very broad range of pulse repetition rates. However, currently available dispersive mirror coatings limit spectral coverage of these oscillators to below one octave hampering their conversion to frequency combs via frequency envelop offset frequency (fceo) control and stabilization. Supercontinuum (SC) generation using photonic waveguides is a promising approach for spectral broadening of pulsed coherent sources at low pulse energies and small footprint. Among many materials promising for this application stoichiomentric Si3N4 (SiN) holds a unique place due to its high nonlinearity, CMOS compatible fabrication process, and spectral coverage over visible-middle-infrared (MIR) range. In the current paper we experimentally demonstrate the generation of a supercontinuum spanning more than 1.5 octaves over 1.2-3.7 um range in a silicon nitride waveguide using sub-40-fs pulses at 2.35 um generated by 75 MHz Cr:ZnS laser. The coupling efficiency was about 16%, which corresponds to 0.56nJ pulse energy and 12.4 kW peak power. We also have observed that threshold for SC generation was about 50 mW of incident power that corresponds to 2.4KW peak power. The demonstrated coherent 1.5 octaves spanning bandwidth is ideal for self-referenced f-2f detection of the fceo. In addition, this represents a promising broadband coherent source for dual comb spectroscopy.
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