High-energy nanosecond thin-rod laser amplifier based on Yb:YAG

Area of Science:

• Lasers and Photonics
• Materials Science

Background:

• High-energy pulsed lasers are crucial for applications like laser amplifiers.
• Existing high-repetition-rate systems often involve complex, high-average-power schemes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a compact and cost-efficient thin-rod amplifier for high-energy pulse generation.
• To achieve tens of millijoules of pulse energy at lower repetition rates.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a compact thin-rod amplifier design.
• Employed Ytterbium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Yb:YAG) as the gain medium.
• Incorporated a quarter-wave plate (QWP) and polarization beam splitter (PBS) for linear polarization.

Main Results:

• Achieved a maximum pulse energy of 30 mJ.
• Operated at a repetition rate of 5 Hz with a 10 ns pulse duration.
• Demonstrated the highest pulse energy from thin Yb:YAG rods at 293 K to date.

Conclusions:

• The developed thin-rod amplifier offers a simple and cost-efficient approach to compact, high-energy pulse generation.
• This method is suitable for seed sources in Joule-scale laser amplifiers.
• The results highlight the potential of thin-rod Yb:YAG lasers for high-energy applications.