Experimental study on compression of 216-W laser pulses below 2 ps at 1030 nm with chirped volume Bragg grating

Abstract

We report on the characterization of a high-power, chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) pulse compressor. It includes measurements of the CVBG's diffraction efficiency, beam profile, beam quality (M-2 parameter), pulse spectrum, the CVBG's temperature, and the thermal lens. These parameters were monitored for a wide range of input laser powers and with different clamping forces applied on the CVBG. This analysis was performed with a CPA-based Yb:YAG thin-disk laser system operating at a wavelength of 1030 nm, a 92 kHz repetition rate, 2 ps pulse duration, and an average output power after compression of 216W(270 W uncompressed), which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest value reported to date using this pulse compression technique. (C) 2020 OpticalSociety of America