Development and characterization of 100-kHz high-peak-power femtosecond laser based on downchirped regenerative amplification

Abstract

We report on the development of a GW-class femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser operating at the repetition rate of 100 kHz using downchirped pulse amplification (DPA) technique. A regenerative amplifier, acousto-optically switched and pumped by a 100-kHz Q-switched green laser, allows the high-energy amplification with a high repetition rate. The DPA-based dispersion compensation has helped us obtain 28 mu J, 39 fs laser pulses with a compression efficiency as high as 95 %. Temporal and spatial characterization of the pulses is presented.