Extreme ultraviolet free electron laser seeded with high-order harmonic of Ti:sapphire laser.

The 13th harmonic of a Ti:sapphire (Ti:S) laser in the plateau region was injected as a seeding source to a 250-MeV free-electron-laser (FEL) amplifier. When the amplification conditions were fulfilled, strong enhancement of the radiation intensity by a factor of 650 was observed. The random and uncontrollable spikes, which appeared in the spectra of the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) based FEL radiation without the seeding source, were found to be suppressed drastically to form to a narrow-band, single peak profile at 61.2 nm. The properties of the seeded FEL radiation were well reproduced by numerical simulations. We discuss the future precept of the seeded FEL scheme to the shorter wavelength region.

Modeling energy dependence of the inner-shell x-ray emission produced by femtosecond-pulse laser irradiation of xenon clusters.

We employ the Los Alamos suite of atomic physics codes to model the inner-shell x-ray emission spectrum of xenon and compare results with those obtained via high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy of xenon clusters irradiated by 30fs Ti:Sapphire laser pulses. We find that the commonly employed configuration-average approximation breaks down and significant spin-orbit splitting necessitates a detailed level accounting. We reproduce an interesting spectral trend for a series of experimental spectra taken with varying pulse energy for fixed pulse duration. To simulate the experimental measurements at increasing beam energies, we find that spectral modeling requires an increased hot electron fraction, but decreased atomic density and bulk electron temperature. We believe these latter conditions to be a result of partial cluster destruction due to the increased energy in the laser prepulse.

High-energy diode-pumped picosecond regenerative amplification at 999 nm in wavelength with a cryogenically cooled Yb:LuLiF(4) crystal.

A diode-pumped, cryogenically cooled Yb:LuLiF(4) regenerative amplifier has been developed for the first time to our knowledge. A chirped-seed pulse was amplified and compressed in the regenerative amplifier, simultaneously, which generated approximately 6 mJ, 13 ps pulses at 999 nm in wavelength without a pulse compressor. Simultaneous lasing at 999 and 1024 nm, respectively, was demonstrated, which could be used for different frequency generation in the terahertz region.

Self compression of Yb-doped solid-state lasers by combination of self-phase modulation and group-velocity dispersion in KDP crystal.

We propose and evaluate numerically the self compression for Yb-doped solid-state laser pulses in a KDP crystal by the combination of the group-velocity dispersion and the self-phase modulation. The self compression is achievable as the group-velocity-dispersion coefficient of KDP crystals is negative around a 1-mum wavelength. Numerical results showed that the laser pulse in the range 50-200 fs can be compressed as short as 12.8 fs. This self-compression method is simple and low cost, which is possible to be applied to an Yb-doped solid-state laser system with a large-scale beam and an ultrahigh intensity in the regime of tens of femotoseconds.

Numerical simulation of self-compressed second-harmonic generation in type II potassium dihydrogen phosphate with a time predelay for Yb-doped solid-state lasers.

We report numerical results of second-harmonic generation in a type II potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystal with a time predelay for picosecond and/or femtosecond Yb-doped solid-state lasers, and clarify the dependence of the self compression in the second-harmonic laser pulse on the initial frequency chirp, fundamental duration and intensity, and phase-mismatching angle. We also show numerically the generation possibility of a self-compressed second-harmonic laser pulse near 20 fs.

Prepulse-free, multi-terawatt, sub-30-fs laser system.

We have built a prepulse-free, multi-terawatt, ultrashort pulse laser system, which combines both conventional laser amplification and optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) techniques. By employing an OPCPA system after the regenerative amplifier in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification laser chain, we have dramatically enhanced the prepulse contrast by 6 orders of magnitude. A prepulse contrast of better than 4.4 x 10-11 has been measured with a high energy broadband pulse of 24 mJ at 10 Hz repetition rate from the OPCPA system. Using a subsequent four-pass Ti:sapphire amplifier, we have achieved an amplified energy of 279 mJ and an ultrashort recompressed amplified pulse duration of 23.5 fs, corresponding to the peak powers for OPCPA and four-pass amplifier of 0.5 TW and 5.9 TW, respectively.

Two-color chirped-pulse amplification in an ultrabroadband Ti:sapphire ring regenerative amplifier.

We have developed a high-energy, ultrabroadband Ti:sapphire ring regenerative amplifier capable of producing in excess of 20-mJ output at a 10-Hz repetition rate. The technique of chirped-pulse amplification is used to generate two-color, time-synchronized pulses with central wavelength separations of up to approximately 120 nm and with a total energy of 10 mJ by use of a regenerative pulse-shaping technique. Mid-infrared pulses tunable from 6 to 11 microm are generated by difference frequency mixing the two-color outputs.

30-mJ, diode-pumped, chirped-pulse Yb:YLF regenerative amplifier.

A diode-pumped chirped-pulse regenerative amplifier with a cooled Yb:YLF crystal has been developed. The output pulse energy is 30 mJ at 20-Hz repetition rate. A high effective extraction efficiency of 68% is obtained, which is attributed to reduced saturation fluence at low temperature and to a high effective pulse energy fluence during regenerative amplification. After pulse compression by use of a parallel grating pair, 18-mJ pulse energy and 795-fs pulse duration are obtained.

360-W average power operation with a single-stage diode-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier at a 1-kHz repetition rate.

We report a high-average-power laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier system that has a minimum number of elements in the single multipass zigzag-slab amplifier stage and is used to pump a high-peak-power and high-average-power Ti:sapphire laser system. This phase-conjugated system produces an average power of 362 W at 1 kHz in a 30-ns pulse with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 14%. With an external KTP doubler this system generates 132 W of green average output power at 1 kHz with a conversion efficiency of 60% when pumped at a power level of 222 W. To the best of our knowledge these results represent the highest average output power at both infrared and green wavelengths achieved in a single amplifier stage.

Numerical analysis of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with time delay.

A new scheme for efficient optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is proposed by introducing a time delay between long pump and short seed pulses. Numerical results show that high conversion efficiency from the pump to seed and high gain can be achieved simultaneously, and the amplified seed pulse is stable and not sensitive to timing jitter.

Improved high-field laser characteristics of a diode-pumped Yb:LiYF4 crystal at low temperature.

We have demonstrated a diode-pumped Yb:LiYF4 laser oscillator at liquid nitrogen temperature in free-running mode. The obtained laser gain was 21 cm-1, which was 15 times as high as that at room temperature. The effective tuning range was broadened to 35 nm due to absorption spectral narrowing.

High energy second-harmonic generation of Nd:glass laser radiation with large aperture CsLiB6O10 crystals.

We have demonstrated the generation of a high-energy green laser pulse using large aperture CsLiB6O10 (CLBO) crystals for the first time to our knowledge. A pulsed energy of 25 J at 532-nm was generated using the 1064-nm incident Nd:glass laser radiation with an energy of 34 J. High conversion efficiency of 74 % at intensities of only 370 MW/cm2 was obtained using a two-stage crystal architecture. This result represents the highest green pulse energy ever reported using the CLBO crystals.