Product Code: ICA12_M1309

High Average Power, High Energy Femtosecond Regenerative Amplifiers
Authors:
Martin Delaigue, Amplitude Systemes; Pessac France
Robert Braunschweig, Amplitude Laser; Pessac France
Clemens Hönninger, Amplitude Systemes; Pessac France
Eric Mottay, Amplitude Systemes; Pessac France
Presented at ICALEO 2012

Femtosecond lasers gain increasing interest because of the unique combination of ultrashort pulse duration and extreme high peak power on the GW-level. In consequence, the machining process is dominated by multiphoton processes making it essentially universal and almost any type of material can be machined with excellent precision and quality. We report on a high average power, high pulse energy Ytterbium solid state femtosecond lasers. The laser source consists of a compact low-power and broadband seed oscillator and a regenerative amplifier using broadband Yb-doped amplifier materials as Yb:YAG and Yb-doped tungstates. The Yb:YAG-based amplifier applied the thin-disk principle and led to femtosecond pulses of >300"J pulse energy and >30 W of average power, the latter being limited by the available pump power. In an experimental variant, we demonstrate pulse durations close to 100 fs from an Ytterbium amplifier, with a simple, reliable optical setup. Both laser amplifiers are well suited for micromaching applications requiring ultrashort pulse duration and high energies.