Spatially dispersive regenerative amplification of ultrashort laser pulses

A novel CPA-system with a spatially dispersive Yb:KYW-based regenerative amplifier is presented. Three prisms inside the amplifier divide the seed pulses from an Yb fiber laser system into spatially separated spectral components that pass through different volumes of the active medium and are amplified independently. This concept allows overcoming the effect of gain-narrowing. The spatially dispersive amplifier delivers laser pulses with energies of up to 30 microJ at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. Successful compression of the amplified pulses down to 171 fs is demonstrated.