Efficient Extraction from a Multi-Pass Yb:YAG Amplifier Via Multi-Pulse Amplification

Summary form only given. Yb-doped laser gain media have emerged over the past 20 years as the main workhorse for a number of applications. Indeed, these crystals can be in-band diode pumped with low quantum defect, feature emission bandwidth supporting sub-picosecond duration pulses and have long excited state lifetimes. The relatively broad emission bandwidth of Yb-doped laser gain media comes however at the expense of a small emission cross section resulting in limited small signal gain and a saturation fluence beyond the damage fluence. Here, we demonstrate a method merging the benefits of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and divided pulse amplification (DPA) to efficiently extract energy from a compact, room temperature Yb:YAG amplifier in an ideal format for applications requiring multiple pulses from a single amplifier - such as OPCPA pumping or to power electron accelerators [4]. We extracted over 100 mJ energy in a two-pulse sequence at 10 Hz repetition rate.