High-repetition-rate regenerative thin-disk amplifier with 116 mu J pulse energy and 250 fs pulse duration

A thin-disk regenerative amplifier based on Yb-doped potassium yttrium tungstate is operated at 40 kHz with an output pulse energy of 116 mu J and a pulse duration of 250 fs. Dispersive stretching of the pulse during amplification instead of an external stretcher is used to avoid high peak intensities. The small amount of the laser active material in the amplifier inherent for the thin-disk laser design and a large beam radius in the Pockels cell reduce nonlinear effects further. Consequently the output pulses can be compressed to 250 fs using a pair of diffraction gratings. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.