Kagome-fiber prism compressor combination for Yb:KGW laser pulse compression to sub-40 fs. (25th January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mayer, Dennis; Matthaei, Christian T; Heuer, Axel; Gühr, Markus
• Is Part Of: Journal of optics. Volume 21:Number 2(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-01-25
• Subjects: pulse compression -- ultrafast optics -- photonic crystal fibers; Optics -- Periodicals; 535.05
• DOI: 10.1088/2040-8986/aafdf6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-8978

Abstract

Abstract: Spectral broadening in hollow-core fibers is an important tool for pulse compression of low-peak power laser pulses, especially for Yb-based lasers. Here, we present a pulse compression scheme to reduce the pulse duration of a commercial Yb:KGW laser operating at 100 kHz repetition rate and 40 μ J pulse energy from 390 to 38 fs. The spectral broadening is accomplished using a krypton-filled Kagome-type fiber. We report broadened spectra for variable Kr-pressures and input powers. At optimal settings of 8 bar Kr-pressure and 3.3 W input power, the bandwidth of the pulse at the −10 dB level increased from 9.5 to 85 nm corresponding to a Fourier limit of 26 fs. A simple SF10 prism compressor is used to reduce the accumulated chirp and shortens the fiber output from about 500 to 38 fs. In addition to the spectral broadening, a pressure dependent change of the polarization is observed.