120 mJ, 1 kHz, picosecond laser at 515 nm.

ABSTRACT

We report on a 1 kHz, 515 nm laser system, based on a commercially available 230 W average power YbYAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier, developed for pumping one of the last optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) stages of the Allegra laser system at ELI Beamlines. To avoid problems with self-focusing of picosecond pulses, the 1030 nm output pulses are compressed and frequency doubled with an LBO crystal in vacuum. Additionally, development of a thermal management system was needed to ensure stable phase matching conditions at high average power. The resulting 515 nm pulses have an energy of more than 120 mJ with SHG efficiency of 60% and an average RMS stability of 1.1% for more than 8 h.