Electro-optically controlled divided-pulse amplification

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fiber-based, electro-optically controlled divided-pulse amplification technique that enhances peak power and pulse energy in pulsed lasers by efficiently combining amplified pulse bursts with high stability.

Contribution

It presents a novel, mostly fiber-coupled method for divided-pulse amplification that allows precise control and potential compensation of nonlinear effects, enabling higher power scaling.

Findings

High combination efficiency achieved

Excellent pulse contrast demonstrated

System exhibits high interferometric stability

Abstract

A novel technique for divided-pulse amplification is presented in a proof-of-principle experiment. A pulse burst, cut out of the pulse train of a mode-locked oscillator, is amplified and temporally combined into a single pulse. High combination efficiency and excellent pulse contrast are demonstrated. The system is mostly fiber-coupled, enabling a high interferometric stability. This approach provides access to the amplitude and phase of the individual pulses in the burst to be amplified, potentially allowing the compensation of gain saturation and nonlinear phase mismatches within the burst. Therefore, this technique enables the scaling of the peak power and pulse energy of pulsed laser systems beyond currently prevailing limitations.