10 kHz water-cooled Ti :Sapphire femtosecond laser

We demonstrate operation of a simple and reliable water-cooled femtosecond laser running at 10 kHz suitable for industrial micromachining applications. A laser geometry involving only a regenerative amplifier and delivering 3.5 W average power 60-fs pulses is compared to a more conventional architecture using an additional multi-pass amplifier. Both laser systems require a moderate pumping laser of ~30 W average power and deliver high-quality beams (M2<1.2).