Chirped-pulse amplification, femtosecond laser

Figure 6 Block diagram of the two-color optical parametric amplifier (OPA) and IR-Raman apparatus. CPA = Chirped pulse amplification system Fs OSC = femtosecond Ti sapphire oscillator Stretch = pulse stretcher Regen = regenerative pulse amplifier SHGYAG = intracavity frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd YAG laser YAG = diode-pumped, single longitudinal mode, Q-switched Nd YAG laser KTA = potassium titanyl arsenate crystals BBO = /J-barium borate crystal PMT = photomultiplier tube HNF = holographic notch filter IF = narrow-band interference filter CCD = charge-coupled device optical array detector. (From Ref. 96.)...

An example of a femtosecond laser system employing chirped pulse amplification is the one housed at the Laser Support Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory a schematic layout is shown in Fig. 2. The system is essentially two-stage, with short, low energy pulses generated in the first stage and amplified in the second. To generate the pulses, a multi-line argon-ion laser with principal lines at 488 and 514 nm and 5 W continuous wave output is used to... 

---