Power-scalable ultrafast laser sources in the midwave-infrared (MWIR) are a key element for basic research and applications in material processing and medicine. Optical amplifiers based on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) are used to generate high intensity pulses, a technique awarded with the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018. In the CPA scheme, a weak temporally stretched seed pulse is amplified to high energy in a laser amplifier and finally re-compressed resulting in an ultrashort pulse of very high intensity. Applying this concept a new system was developed at MBI delivering few-ps pulses at 2 μm wavelength with peak power beyond 10 GW (10 billion watt) at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The emitted pulses are characterized by excellent stability and brilliant beam quality. The results are reported in the latest issue of Optics Letters.
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Source: Phys.org