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High-energy Ho:LLF MOPA laser system using a top-hat pump profile for the amplifier stage

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Abstract

Numerical simulations show the advantage of using a top-hat intensity profile pumping the amplifier stage in an Ho:LuLiF4 (Ho:LLF) master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration over a Gaussian pump profile: higher pulse energies could be generated simultaneously with reduced peak fluence in Q-switched operation. In the experimental implementation, the top-hat beam was realized with a coherent beam transformation of the non-absorbed pump beam transmitted by the oscillator to pump the amplifier stage. The Ho:LLF MOPA produced 103.6 mJ at a repetition rate of 100 Hz with a pulse duration of 30 ns at a wavelength of 2053 nm, which corresponds to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 12.9 %. The beam quality was nearly diffraction limited (M 2 = 1.03).

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  1. French–German Research Institute of Saint Louis ISL, 5 rue du Général Cassagnou, 68301, Saint-Louis, France

    Martin Schellhorn & Marc Eichhorn

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  1. Martin Schellhorn
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  2. Marc Eichhorn
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Correspondence to Martin Schellhorn.

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Schellhorn, M., Eichhorn, M. High-energy Ho:LLF MOPA laser system using a top-hat pump profile for the amplifier stage. Appl. Phys. B 109, 351–357 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5155-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5155-x

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