Multipass dye-cell amplifier for high-repetition-rate femtosecond optical pulses

We describe a dye-cell amplifier pumped by a copper-vapor laser at a 8.4-kHz repetition rate. This system avoids possible problems and restrictions arising from nozzle performance in commonly used jet-stream amplifiers. We obtained a nearly diffraction-limited beam with pulses of 60 fsec and energies of up to 50 microJ.