Development of a 25-TW, 60-fs Ti:sapphire laser with frequency-doubled erbium-fiber oscillator

Abstract

High-power Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser systems have contributed significantly to advancements in various aspects of science; however, the stability of the laser systems limits the application of intense laser pulses. This study presents the development of a stable high-power femtosecond laser system. To this end, 25-TW laser pulses were generated at 10-Hz repetition rate from a chirped-pulse amplification Ti:sapphire laser seeded with a frequency-doubled erbium-fiber laser. Laser pulses with 54-fs duration and 780-nm central wavelength from the stable fiber laser were amplified to 2.3 J after sufficient temporal stretching. To shorten the temporal duration of the amplified pulse, the spectral bandwidth was broadened by controlling its spectral amplitude, and the spectral phase error was minimized by precisely controlling the pulse compressor. Finally, the compressed laser pulse had a high energy of 1.6 J, good energy stability of 0.8%, and a short duration of 60 fs, which is close to the seed pulse duration. Thus, the stable high-power femtosecond laser system developed in this study can facilitate various femtosecond laser pulse applications.