The time-resolved measurements of thermally induced wavefront aberrations in a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG crystal are presented in dependence on temperature in the range between 250 and 130 K under ...non-lasing condition. A wavefront sensor was utilized to determine the wavefront aberrations. The wavefront distortions were experimentally studied for a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG crystal in detail for the first time. The wavefront aberrations were significantly reduced at cryogenic temperatures including defocus which was the dominant aberration and which was responsible for the so-called thermal lensing effect. We found that defocus aberration is caused not only by thermally induced effects (responsible for thermal lens), but also by electronically induced change in the refractive index due to excitation of ion activators which is responsible for the electronic lensing. Nevertheless, at pumping intensity of 6.3 kW/cm
2
and repetition rate of 100 Hz thermal effects were the dominant one. In addition, an improvement in the Strehl ratio along with an increase in absorbed pump energy was observed while the temperature of the gain medium was decreased. The measurements clearly show the advantages of cryogenic cooling of laser-active media for beam quality improvement.
We introduce the Czech national R&D project HiLASE which focuses on strategic development of advanced high-repetition rate, diode pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) systems that may find use in ...research, high-tech industry and in the future European large-scale facilities such as HiPER and ELI. Within HiLASE we explore two major concepts: thin-disk and cryogenically cooled multislab amplifiers capable of delivering average output powers above 1 kW level in picosecond-to-nanosecond pulsed regime. In particular, we have started a programme of technology development to demonstrate the scalability of multislab concept up to the kJ level at repetition rate of 1-10 Hz.
We present a comparison of two alternative laser layouts for HiLASE and ELI Beamlines projects. The cryogenically cooled laser is 100 J class with 2 ns pulse length and operates at 10 Hz repetition ...rate. The laser beam is intended for industrial applications in HiLASE, for OPCPA pumping in ELI Beamlines and can serve as a test bed for large scale high repetition rate fusion lasers. First layout utilizes classical scheme with preamplifier and main amplifier, while the second layout utilizes single amplifier scheme with two amplifier heads. The comparison is based on the results obtained from homemade MATLAB code for evaluation of amplified spontaneous emission and stored energy and on a beam propagation simulated in MIRO code.
We present measurements of the absorption and emission cross-sections for
Yb:YAG
,
Yb:LuAG
and
Yb:CaF
2
as a function of temperature between 80 and 340 K. The cross-sections are determined by the ...combination of the McCumber relation and the Fuchtbauer–Ladenburg (FL) equation to achieve reliable results in spectral regions of high and low absorption. The experimental setup used for the fluorescence measurements minimizes re-absorption effects due to the measurement from small sample volume, providing nearly undisturbed raw data for the FL approach. The retrieved cross-sections together with the spectral characteristics of the tested materials provide important information for the design of energy efficient, high-power laser amplifiers.
We present measurements of the absorption and emission cross-sections for Yb:YAG, Yb:LuAG and Yb:CaF sub(2) as a function of temperature between 80 and 340 K. The cross-sections are determined by the ...combination of the McCumber relation and the Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg (FL) equation to achieve reliable results in spectral regions of high and low absorption. The experimental setup used for the fluorescence measurements minimizes re-absorption effects due to the measurement from small sample volume, providing nearly undisturbed raw data for the FL approach. The retrieved cross-sections together with the spectral characteristics of the tested materials provide important information for the design of energy efficient, high-power laser amplifiers.
Abstract
An overview of the Czech national R&D project HiLASE (High average power pulsed laser) is presented. The project focuses on the development of advanced high repetition rate, diode pumped ...solid state laser (DPSSL) systems with energies in the range from mJ to 100 J and repetition rates in the range from 10 Hz to 100 kHz. Some applications of these lasers in research and hi-tech industry are also presented.
We present results on development and experimental implementation of a 1-kHz, coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radia- tion source based on high-order harmonic generation of the femtosecond, ...near-infrared laser pulses produced by the titanium-doped sapphire laser system (35 fs, 1.2 mJ, 810 nm) at the Institute of Physics AS CR / PALS Centre. The source comprises a low-density static gas cell filled with a conversion medium, typically argon. The comprehensive optimization of the XUV harmonic source has been performed with respect to major parameters such as gas pressure in the cell, cell length, position of the focus of the driving laser field with respect to the gas cell position, size of the driving near-infrared laser beam, chirp of the femtosecond pulse, and the focal length of the lens deployed in the experimental setup. Harmonic spectra were recorded using an XUV transmission grating spectrometer developed specifically for this purpose. Detailed characterization of the XUV source has been performed including measurement of the XUV beam profile, M
2
parameter of the beam, absolute energy, and spatial coherence.
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