Femtosecond Frontend

Technical contact: Christian Brabetz

The pulses of the femtosecond front end are generated with a commercially available laser oscillator that emits pulses with a repetition rate of 72 MHz, a pulse length of around 110 fs and energies of around 3 nJ. The pulses are amplified to about 500 µJ in an ‘ultrafast parametric amplifier’ (uOPA) without loss of contrast. This is followed by an adjustable pulse stretcher, which realises the first step of the ‘chirped pulse amplification process’ (CPA). A stretching ratio of 190 ps/nm reduces the peak power to values below the damage threshold of the optical components in the subsequent amplifier chain. The stretched pulse is then amplified in a regenerative titanium:sapphire amplifier with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The output energy is typically 15 mJ. The entire system can thus achieve a contrast (pulse to background) of more than 120 dB.

©
J. Hosan / GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH
fs_Frontend

Key parameters of the femtosecond front end:

Central wavelength:

1053 nm

Spectral width:

10 nm

Maximum output energy:

15 mJ at around 2 ns

Temporal contrast:

120 dB

Repetition rate:

10 Hz

Output Mode:

TEM00


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